Bashar Assad's Russian-backed reconquest of most of Syria over the past two years is beginning to look like a Pyrrhic victory, as protest and even armed resistance re-emerge in regime-controlled territory. Insurgency is especially mounting in southern Daraa [8] province—where the revolution first began [9] back in 2011. Brig. Gen. Talal Qassem of the army's 5th Division was shot dead [10] Sept. 9 by gunmen on a motorcycle near Busra Harir in the northeast of Daraa. He was the second regime general slain in the province since Assadist forces retook southern Syria in July 2018. They were among more than 200 regime soldiers and officials slain in attacks over this period, and the pace of attacks is escalating. Among regime figures slain in the past month are the mayor of the town of Lajat, a military intelligence officer, and a member of the "reconciliation committees" attempting to rebuild regime support.
On Aug. 20, there were clashes in eastern Daraa [11] after regime security raided a village to arrest suspects. Multiple casualties were reported before Russian troops were deployed to put down the fighting. (EA Worldview [6])
A wave of anti-government protests [12] has meanwhile been mounting elsewhere in regime-controlled territory, amid an atmosphere of deepening crisis [13].
