HTS steals, replaces Saudi aid with Syrian-made ones
IDLIB, Syria (North Press) – Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS, formerly al-Nusra Front), through approved companies, has recently stolen aid offered by Saudi Arabia to northwest Syria and replaced its contents with Syrian-made materials with the aim to store them to sell them later.
A source from the local council of the HTS in the town of Dana northern Idlib told North Press, “All contents of aid provided by Saudi Arabia, Golf countries, and Europe were replaced with locally produced ones that were produced and packaged in approved companied by the HTS in the countryside of the town of Sarmada north of Idlib.”
The source added that the high-quality original materials are being stored in warehouses of the HTS’ development office.
The source went further adding that the HTS always steals such kind of provided humanitarian aid, stressing that this practice has turned into a source of funding to the HTS through selling the materials and operating the local approved companies.
The HTS makes good profits of selling the humanitarian aid without any rules or control to stop these practices amid a state of fear prevailing among residents, according to the source.
King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center has recently sent several aid trucks to north Syria through Bab al-Hawa border crossing with Turkey north of Idlib, and they were preceded by an aid convoy provided by Turki bin Faisal Al Saud through the same border crossing that were all stolen, according to local sources.
The HTS, which was established in 2017, runs vast swaths in the countryside of Idlib and parts of Aleppo, Hama and Latakia. It runs the aforementioned areas through the civil wing, the Interim Government, which controls all aspects of life there.
In 2018, the United States classified the HTS, led by Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, and every faction affiliated with it, as a terrorist organization.
The United States listed al-Jolani as a specially designated global terrorist in 2013. In 2020, US State Department Reward for Justice Program offered a reward of $10 million for information leading to his arrest.