Fighters of the Omari Brigades in northern Daraa
On June 22, the Russian Centre for the Reconciliation of Opposing Sides in Syria announced in an official statement that a group of fighters of the US-backed Omari Brigades led by commander Wajdi Abu Thlaith had defected and reconciled with the Damascus government.
Syrian pro-government activists said that more than one hundred fighters of the US-backed Omari Brigades defected with Abu Thlaith in the southern governorate of Daraa.
According to the Russian Reconciliation Center, Abu Thlaith and his group handed over their positions in the villages of Dama and Chyah in the northeastern Daraa countryside to the Syrian Arab Army (SAA). The former FSA fighters also vowed to fight the former branch of al-Qaeda – Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) – and ISIS in southern Syria along with the SAA.
BBC journalist Riam Dalati revealed that Abu Thlaith attended very important talks with Russia in the Jordanian city of Irbid in October of 2017. Furthermore, several Syrian opposition actives accused the former FSA commander of working with Hezbollah and the Syrian intelligence earlier this year.
Can now reveal that the Brigade commander mentioned as having flipped to the regime side was the same person who attended the #Russia #Daraa normalisation meeting in Irbid, Oct 2017. (H/T @WithinSyriaBlog for providing today’s full reconciliation statement) https://t.co/hzkPAalTTJ
— Riam Dalati (@Dalatrm) June 22, 2018
More fighters and commanders of the FSA in southern Syria will likely join the reconciliation process in the upcoming days, especially that the SAA is about to launch a large scale military operation there.
