One week after capturing the town of Sikakah near the strategic Tha’lah Military Airbase, the Druze Civil Defense Forces – in coordination with the Syrian Arab Army (SAA), Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP) and National Defense Forces (NDF) – conducted a powerful assault on the militant defenses at Al-Darrah Al-Kabeera, resulting in a series of fierce clashes at this town in the western countryside of the Al-Sweida Governorate.
The Druze Civil Defense Forces were able to take full control of Al-Darrah Al-Kabeera after the militants from the Free Syrian Army’s “Southern Front” – alongside the Syrian Al-Qaeda group “Jabhat Al-Nusra” and Jaysh Al-Yarmouk – were forced to withdraw to the Brigade 52 Base located at the border of the Dara’a and Al-Sweida Governorates of southern Syria.
With the capture of Sikakah and Al-Darrah Al-Kabeera, the Druze Civil Defense Forces and the Syrian Armed Forces have now created a buffer-zone that stretches 12 square km around the western perimeter of the Tha’lah Military Airbase; this successful counter-offensive has alleviated the threat posed by the armed militants at the military base and this has forced the aforementioned to retreat to the border of the Dara’a Governorate.
If the Druze militias can maintain this momentum, they will be able to help alleviate the pressure posed by the militants of Jabhat Al-Nusra at the Khalkhalah Military Airbase located near the Al-Lajat Plateau in the northwestern countryside of Al-Sweida (Also in Dara’a).
