Turkish-backed member killed in Syria’s Aleppo countryside

ALEPPO EASTERN COUNTRYSIDE, Syria (North Press) – A member of the Turkish-backed Mu’tasim Division was killed yesterday, as he was targeted by unknown gunmen near Center roundabout in the center of al-Bab city in the eastern countryside of Aleppo.

Members of Mu’tasim Division deploy in several cities and towns north and east of Aleppo, including al-Bab, Sharan district, and Mare’ town, which is the division’s headquarters.

Unidentified individuals, who riding a motorcycle, fired directly at the division’s member Qassem Labbad, a settler from the countryside of Daraa in southern Syria, killing him immediately, a local source told North Press.

He was transferred to the National Hospital in the city to be handed over to his family in tandem with a military mobilization of the military and civil police in the city’s neighborhoods, the source added.

On March 12, residents of the city of al-Bab found an IED with a Syrian flag placed on near a school in the city center.

Since 2017, al-Bab city has been run by Turkish-backed armed factions the most notable of which are al-Hamza faction, Sultan Murad and Ahrar al-Sham.

Areas occupied by the Turkish-backed factions have been witnessing security chaos accompanied by frequent explosions, in addition to cases of abductions and corruption amid the failure of these factions to maintain security.

Reporting by Farouq Hamo