IDLIB, Syria (North Press) – Samira al-Ahmed, a pseudonym of a displaced woman residing in the Atma camps north of Idlib, northwest Syria, while working in smuggling diesel, fears being hit or confiscating the diesel by members of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS, formerly al-Nusra Front).
HTS prevents the entry of fuel and some types of vegetables through the Deir Ballut and al-Ghazawiya crossings into its areas of control in Idlib, where companies affiliated with it such as Watad Petroleum Company monopolize the markets.
Al-Ahmed said that she was forced to work in smuggling, after the murder of her husband, as she has become responsible for three children, and she has to secure their basics.
The young woman travels a distance of 2 kilometers on foot and she enters the city of Afrin through the main crossing, and buys diesel, to start the process of smuggling through the agricultural lands in order to reach the other side.
On February 10, a woman succumbed to her injury as HTS members shot her in the head while smuggling a container of diesel fuel through the bushes and farmland near Atma town.
“The 28-year-old Fatima Abdulrahman al-Hamid was transported to Bab al-Hawa Hospital where she was put in the intensive care unit, but she died,” North Press reported a medical sources
Pursuing children and women
HTS members pursue children and women who have no breadwinners, according to al-Ahmed, “while other people smuggl cars with loads of cigarettes and diesel after paying these members to turn a blind eye.”
Al-Ahmed makes 35 Turkish liras (about 10,000 SYP) for smuggling 30 liters of diesel, taking advantage of the price differences between the two regions.
Late in 2021, activists circulated footages of three children who were tortured by HTS members, while smuggling cigarettes from the areas held by the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) in Afrin to the areas held HTS.
Early in February, the 12-year-old Mustafa Rabi’, a pseudonym for an IDP residing in the border camps of Deir Hassan, was beaten and tortured by HTS members while he was smuggling a few boxes of cigarettes through agricultural forests linking between the cities of Afrin and Idlib.
The child of the city of Ma’arat al-Numan said a patrol called the Border Guard stopped him and confiscated all the cigarettes boxes he was carrying before they arrested him for more than 12 hours and beat him.
During his detention, the child was not allowed to eat or drink, in addition to being threatened with weapons and death if he smuggles cigarettes again.
Rabi’ makes 15 Turkish liras (about 4,000 SYP) in return for smuggling a quantity of cigarettes.
Harassment at crossing
HTS members commit various violations at their checkpoints, especially Deir Ballut crossing, north of Idlib, where they arrest, beat and use live bullets, and intimidate passersby at this crossing, forcing many residents to postpone or suspend their trips for fear of passing through them.
Firas Hajaj, a resident of Idlib, was arrested at Deir Ballut crossing, for filling his car with more than 10 liters of diesel.
Hajaj said that HTS members seized his car and imprisoned him for three days so that he had to pay $100 in exchange for his release, without knowing the crime he had committed.
Ra’ed al-Eido, a pseudonym for a driver of Idlib who works on the Afrin-Atma route, said many travelers postpone their trips for fear of the security tightening at the crossing.
Al-Eido told North Press that he sometimes lines up in long queues at Deir Ballut crossing, which is held by HTS, for more than three hours due to the careful inspections measures of HTS members.
He points out that while they are waiting, HTS members carry out a campaign of arrests and shootings that intimidate travelers and passersby.
HTS does not hold its members accountable for committing crimes and ongoing violations against the residents of the area, according to Rami al-Abdullah, a pseudonym of a human rights activist of Idlib.
Al-Abdullah stresses the need to put an end to the violations of HTS members through staging campaigns and protests against the judicial authorities, which have always acquitted killers belonging to HTS.