Daraa in the context of "Beit Ras"

Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa (born 29 October 1982), also known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammad al-Julani, is a Syrian politician, revolutionary, and former rebel commander who has served as the president of Syria since 2025. He previously served as the emir of Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) from 2017 to 2025 and was Syria's de facto leader from December 2024 until his appointment as president.

Born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to a Syrian Sunni Muslim family from Daraa and the Golan Heights, he grew up in Syria's capital, Damascus. Al-Sharaa joined al-Qaeda in Iraq shortly before the 2003 invasion of Iraq and fought for three years in the Iraqi insurgency. American forces captured and imprisoned him from 2006 to 2011. His release coincided with the Syrian Revolution against the Ba'athist dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad. Al-Sharaa created the al-Nusra Front in 2012 with the support of al-Qaeda to topple the Assad regime in the Syrian civil war. As emir of the al-Nusra Front, al-Sharaa built a stronghold in the northwestern Idlib Governorate. He resisted Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's attempts to merge al-Nusra Front with the Islamic State, leading to armed conflict between the two groups. In 2016, al-Sharaa cut al-Nusra's ties with al-Qaeda and launched a crackdown on its loyalists. Since breaking with al-Qaeda, he has sought international legitimacy by presenting a more moderate view of himself, renouncing transnational jihadism against Western nations, and focusing on governance in Syria while vowing to protect Syria's minorities.

On 27 November 2024, a coalition of Syrian revolutionary factions called the Military Operations Command, led by Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and supported by allied Turkish-backed groups in the Syrian National Army (SNA), launched an offensive against the Ba'athist regime's armed forces in Idlib, Aleppo and Hama Governorates in Syria. It initially began as a localised offensive targeting towns in the Idlib and Aleppo countryside, later evolving into a nationwide campaign that culminated in the toppling of Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

On 29 November 2024, HTS and later the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) entered Aleppo and captured most of the city, amid the collapse of pro-government forces. The next day, opposition forces made rapid advances, capturing dozens of towns and villages as pro-government forces disintegrated, and advanced toward Hama in central Syria, subsequently capturing it on 5 December. By 6 December, the SDF captured Deir ez-Zor in an offensive east of the Euphrates, while the newly formed Southern Operations Room and Al-Jabal Brigade captured Daraa and Suwayda in an offensive in the south. The HTS advanced further south toward Homs. The US-backed Syrian Free Army (SFA) took control of Palmyra in the southeast of the country.

The Hauran (Arabic: حَوْرَان, romanized: Ḥawrān; also spelled Hawran or Houran) is a region that spans parts of southern Syria and northern Jordan. It is bound in the north by the Ghouta oasis, to the northeast by the al-Safa field, to the east and south by the Harrat al-Sham and to the west by the Golan Heights. Traditionally, the Hauran consists of three subregions: the Nuqrah and Jaydur plains, the Jabal al-Druze massif, and the Lajat volcanic field. The population of the Hauran is largely Arab, but religiously heterogeneous; most inhabitants of the plains are Sunni Muslims belonging to large agrarian clans, while Druze form the majority in the eponymous Jabal al-Druze and a significant Greek Orthodox and Greek Catholic minority inhabit the western foothills of Jabal al-Druze. The region's largest towns are Daraa, al-Ramtha, and al-Suwayda.

From the mid-1st century BC, the region was governed by the Roman Empire's Herodian and Nabatean client kings until it was formally annexed by the empire in the 2nd century AD. The Hauran prospered under Roman rule (106–395 AD) and its villages functioned as largely self-governing units, some of which developed into imperial cities. The region continued to prosper in the Byzantine era (395–634), during which different Arab tribes ruled the Hauran on Byzantium's behalf, including the Salihids (5th century) and Ghassanids (6th century) until the Muslim conquest in the mid-630s. For much of the Islamic era until Ottoman rule (1517–1917), the Hauran was divided into the districts of al-Bathaniyya and Ḥawrān, which corresponded to the Classical Batanea and Auranitis. Medieval Muslim geographers variously described these districts as prosperous, well-watered and well-populated.

Beginning on 29 November 2024, southern Syrian opposition groups began assaults on Daraa Governorate and As-Suwayda Governorate in Southern Syria, along the nation's border with Jordan. The offensive was publicly announced as an effort by the Southern Operations Room coordinated with the Northwestern Syria offensive to implement a multi-front advance toward Damascus. The Syrian Armed Forces withdrew from their positions around the city of Daraa to reinforce Damascus but offered no resistance there, and southern opposition groups took Damascus in the early hours of 8 December, shortly before the arrival of northern opposition groups later that day.

Al-Hasakah (Arabic: ٱلْحَسَكَة, romanized: al-Ḥasaka; Kurdish: حەسەکە, romanized: Heseke; Syriac: ܚܣܝܟܐ, romanized: Hasake; officially Hasakah, is a city in northeastern Syria and the capital of the Al-Hasakah Governorate. With a 2023 estimated population of 422,445, Al-Hasakah is populated by Arabs, Kurds, Assyrians and a smaller number of Armenians and Chechens. Al-Hasakah is 80 kilometres (50 miles) south of the city of Qamishli. The Khabur River, a tributary of the Euphrates River, flows west–east through the city. The Jaghjagh River flows into the Khabur from the north at Al-Hasakah. The city (and the surrounding countryside) is controlled by the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (DAANES).

It is characterized by its fertile lands, abundant water, beautiful nature, and numerous archaeological sites. It has also witnessed a major modern urban renaissance, and numerous agricultural and industrial projects have been established around it. Over the past two decades, it has suffered from the drying up of its main river, the Khabur, which has led to the loss of much of its agricultural land, forcing many of its people to migrate internally to the interior provinces, especially the capital of Syria, Damascus, and Daraa in the south, to work in industrial factories and on agricultural lands.

Daraa Governorate (Arabic: مُحافظة درعا Muḥāfaẓat Dar‘ā) is one of the fourteen governorates (provinces) of Syria. It is situated in the south-west of the country and covers an area of 2594 km. It is bordered by Jordan to the south, Quneitra Governorate and Golan Heights to the west, Rif Dimashq Governorate to the north and Suwayda Governorate to the east. The capital is the city of Daraa.

The governorate had a population of 843,478 in the 2004 census.Several clashes have occurred within the governorate throughout the Syrian civil war.