Unknown gunmen kill drone engineer of HTS in northwest Syria
IDLIB, Syria (North Press) – Unknown people targeted on Sunday an engineer working in manufacturing drones for Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS – formerly known as al-Nusra Front) in Idlib Governorate, northwest Syria.
A source from General Security Service (GSS) of the HTS told North Press that unknown gunmen riding motorcycles targeted a car of Turkistan Islamic Party while heading from the city of Jisr al-Shughur, west Idlib, towards the village of al-Quniyah, northwest Idlib.
The Turkistan Islamic Party are jihadists that arrived from their homeland in China with their families in 2013 and settled in the coastal mountains and the western countryside of Idlib.
The attack resulted in the killing of Yasar Abu Dia’, a Palestinian national and works in engineering suicide drones for the Turkistan Islamic Party, in addition to wounding two other Uighur nationals, the source added.
Abu Dia’ was a former leader in the technical manufacturing department of the Islamic State (ISIS) in Raqqa Governorate, north Syria, before fleeing to join the Turkistan Islamic Party in Idlib, the source added.
He is considered an ally for the HTS and in charge of manufacturing drones along with a staff of engineers within secretive factories.
After investigations, exclusive sources have previously told North Press that the HTS has a factory in the town of Ain al-Beida, north of Latakia, on the Syrian coast, which was formerly a school and converted into a factory for manufacturing drones.