Opposition forces take Syria’s Daraa, Astana-track meeting to be held

Daraa, known as the ‘cradle of the revolution’ is fourth city al-Assad loses in a single week.

Daraa-based opposition forces say they have seized control of the southern city, the fourth strategically important city President Bashar al-Assad’s forces have lost in a week.

Sources said the military has agreed to make an orderly withdrawal from Daraa under a deal giving army officials safe passage to the capital, Damascus, about 100km (60 miles) north.

Daraa was dubbed “the cradle of the revolution” early in Syria’s war as government repression of protests failed to quell the people’s anger after the government detained and tortured a group of boys for scribbling anti-al-Assad graffiti on their school walls in 2011. In April of that year, regime forces besieged the city, a move seen as having militarised the revolution.

On Friday evening, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said local factions had taken control of more than 90 percent of Daraa province, including the eponymous city.