IDLIB, Syria (North Press) – Samia Tanari, a pseudonym for a displaced woman from Ma’arat al-Numan, south of Idlib, hardly forgot the details of the theft she was subjected to, as she never expected something like that to happen to her.
With great panic and without any thought other than to stay alive, Tanari surrendered to the demands of three women who robbed her home early this month, and took all her money and jewelry at gunpoint.
Idlib has been recently witnessing an increase in killing, theft and assassinations amid the security chaos in the areas under the control of the Salvation Government, the civil wing of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).
“Most gangs of theft and kidnapping follow the method of HTS in raiding and roaming, regarding the cars they use or the clothes they wear, whether men or women. They drive the targeted person under the pretext of being wanted by security courts, which facilitates kidnapping process,” Tanari told North Press.
Blackmail and ransom demand
“These gangs kidnap women and children with the aim of extortion and demanding a ransom, or with the aim of stealing money or jewelry,” she added.
The same thing happened to Ahmad Mer’i, a pseudonym for a goldsmith from the city of Hass, south of Idlib, where he was abducted by a gang which said they were security members of HTS, under the pretext of “selling irregular gold,” to find out later that they were a kidnapping gang.
To be released, al-Mer’i had to pay $40,000 after being threatened to death, to face only two options, either to pay or be killed.
Today, the man is subject to the Salvation Government courts and he is threatened with imprisonment, after several lawsuits were filed against him by people who had deposited sums of money with him for the purpose of trade, and he had to pay them as ransom in exchange for his release.
However, al-Mer’i was in a better condition than the moneychanger, Khalid al-Satif, who was killed by a robbery gang in front of his house in the city center of Idlib, after all his money were looted.
Haj Ahmad, 62, who witnessed the killing of al-Satif, said, “life in Idlib is governed by forest law.”
Fox guarding the henhouse
Zakkour al-Salim, a media activist from Idlib, accuses members of HTS and opposition groups of kidnapping and theft, especially cases that take place at their military checkpoints in the area.
On February 21, an attempt to rob a money exchange shop by two people met with a state of discontent and popular turmoil in the city of Kafr Takharim, north of Idlib, especially after it was discovered that one of the arrested thieves was holding Turkish citizenship and belonging to the HTS.
Mustafa Subhi, a pseudonym for one of the heads of local councils in the northern countryside of Idlib, did not deny the security problems among the Salvation Government.
Subhi pointed out that kidnapping, killing and robbery gangs move freely between the villages and towns of Idlib.
Since the beginning of this year, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has documented the killing of about 45 people, including 13 civilians, who died due to insecurity state in the city of Idlib and the surrounding countryside.