According to sources from the opposition-held town of Daraya in the countryside of Damascus, the regime arrested over 600 members of the families of opposition forces in an effort to pressure fighters to accept a truce.
A spokesman for the Media Centre in Daraya, Hossam al-Ahmed, explained that "the regime offered a truce for the opposition factions in Daraya nearly a year ago. The fighters responded with a document of demands signed by all the fighting factions, but the regime rejected it. Two weeks ago, the regime started arresting the displaced families of the fighters in Jdaidat Artouz and ad-Darkhabiyah in Damascus countryside, as a way to pressure them to accept the truce".
Ahmad added: "the demands of the factions included the release of detainees, the withdrawal of the army from the vicinity of Daraya, the neutralization of civilians and a ban of humiliating them at regime's checkpoints. In return, the opposition forces should give up their heavy weapons to the regime which should withdraw from the town".
Regime pressure on the fighters in Daraya follows an increasing number of deaths among troops in the city, with an inability to storm the area despite heavy regime shelling. Earlier, five pro-regime fighters were been killed and others were injured in the northeastern front of the city, as confirmed by Abdul Hamid Ad-Darani, a member of the Media Center in Daraya.
Translated and edited by The Syrian Observer
