Demonstrators in Daraa call for release of Syrian detainees

Dozens of Syrian demonstrators took to the streets on Friday (November 15) in Daraa to demand freedom for Syrian detainees in Assad detention centers and to protest against the Assad and the Iranian militiamen, local sources told Orient.

Peaceful protesters hit the streets in the city centre after Friday prayer and in the evening in the villages of Sahem al-Golan and Jillen , the local sources added.

They called for the release the detainees in Assad regime prisons, chanting “free the detainees.”

On Tuesday, similar protesters were seen in the towns and villages of al-Yadoda, Tel Shihab, al-Mezayrib and al-Ajami in the countryside of Daraa.

Protesters on Tuesday tore the pictures and flags of Assad regime at Tel Shehab Roundabout and Kharab al-Shahim, rejecting setting up these flags in the squares of the towns, threatening of many escalating steps to take place if Assad militiamen don't release the detainees.

The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) estimates that 1.2 million Syrian citizens have been arrested and detained at some point since the start of the uprising in March 2011. At least 130,000 are still detained or forcibly disappeared by the Assad regime.

The United States in September told UN Security Council that 128,000 people face arbitrary detention by the Assad regime and called for their release.

Assad militiamen re-occupied Darra and its countryside without fighting after some factions in the Free Syrian Army handed over large swaths of the area in what was termed "reconciliation" with the regime in 2018.