IDPs and residents of Syria’s Atma camps protest against HTS
IDLIB, Syria (North Press) – Dozens of displaced people and residents of the town of Atma, north Idlib, protested on Thursday against Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), formerly Jabhat al-Nusra, at the backdrop of shooting and injuring a woman.
“Large protests took place between the residents and IDPs of the border town of Atma, after HTS members shot a woman called Fatima Abdulrahman al-Hamid (28 ), wounding her in the head while smuggling a container of diesel fuel through the bushes and farmland,” North Press reported eyewitnesses from Atma town.
HTS militants attacked Umm al-Shuhada and Sufuhn camps, arresting several people, including a media activist. A child was injured in the foot as HTS randomly shot the people, amid great panic among the residents and the displaced, the sources added.
Storming the camps by HTS came after the residents and the camp’s displaced attacked HTS checkpoints and burned the checkpoint that shot the woman, in addition to burning three motorcycles of the checkpoint members,” the sources added.
On Wednesday afternoon, a group of women and children were shot by HTS militants while smuggling containers of diesel fuel at Deir Ballut crossing, north of Idlib. A woman was seriously wounded and transported to Bab al-Hawa Hospital for treatment.
Hundreds of people, including women and children, work in the camps for the displaced on the Syrian-Turkish border north of Idlib, smuggling diesel on foot from the Deir Ballut area in the countryside of Afrin to the northern countryside of Idlib.
However, Tahrir al-Sham ,which controls Idlib, prevents fuel from entering the northern countryside of Aleppo to its areas of control, in light of the policy of monopoly and restriction that it imposes on the residents of area, according to the sources.
Furthermore, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham imposed last month financial fines and warnings to several gas stations in the regions of Deir Hassan and Atma, north of Idlib, for their purchase of smuggled oil from Afrin, north of Aleppo.