The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights

4 consecutive months of assassinations and bombings by ISIS cells and unknown groups in Idlib and its surroundings claim the lives of 290 Syrian and non-Syrian civilians and fighters

While Idlib barely could get itself out of its internal war, the sleeper cells and unknown groups began to impose themselves in Idlib and its surroundings of Aleppo’s western countryside and the northern countryside of Hama, imposing an unprecedented security chaos in any Syrian area, where the explosions were made either through explosive devices, booby-trapped bicycles, or booby-trapped vehicles, scattered throughout most of the areas within Idlib province and its surroundings, along with kidnappings, torture, ransom, killings, shootings, execution, hanging bodies, and throwing corpses in the vicinity of or on roads between cities, towns and villages of the province, where these operations have escalated day after the other, and with time; the number of members who carry out the assassinations, assassination attempts, and abductions has increased.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitored the escalation of these assassinations since the 26th of April 2018, where it completed its 4th consecutive month on the 26th of August 2018, where most of the assassinations were carried out in by sleeper cells of the “Islamic State” Organization, which began to be active following the end of their presence in Idlib and the eastern countryside of Hama, where assassinations were carried out by various means, from gunfire to detonation of explosive devices, booby-trapped motorcycles and cars, abduction, slaughter, and hanging corpses, the assassinations were carried out in Idlib city and its eastern, western, northern and southern countryside, as well as the western countryside of Aleppo, the northern sector of Hama and mountains of Latakia.

The casualties who were documented by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights since the 26th of April 2018, reached  289,  the number of people who were assassinated in Idlib countryside and both Aleppo and Hama countryside, they are the wife of an Uzbek commander and his son, in addition to 56 civilians including 9 children and 6 women, of who were assassinated through bomb explosions, IED detonations, shooting, abduction, murder and then throwing the bodies in remote areas, and 199 fighters of Syrian nationality belong to Hayyaat Tahrir al-Sham, al-Sham Corps, the Islamic Movement of Ahrar al-Sham, Jaysh al-Izza, and other factions operating in Idlib, and 30 fighters of Uzbek, Asian, Gulf, Jordanian and Caucasian nationalities have been assassinated in the same ways, also the assassination attempts have injured tens of people with varying severity, while the factions stepped up their raids and operations against sleeper cells they accused of belonging to the “Islamic State” organization.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitored the failure of factions operating in the countryside of Idlib, Aleppo, and Hama to control the security chaos, despite the security operations which contributed to the arrest of tens of people on charges of belonging to the “Islamic State” organization, and the arrest, executions, and killing of tens of members who belong to these cells during security operations in the areas where the security chaos is spread; some of them were executed immediately after being arrested and others were executed after interrogation, while some were killed during the clashes when raiding headquarters of these cells which belong to the “Islamic  State” organization, where it rose to 75 at least, the number of members of ISIS and these cells who have been killed since the end of April 2018, of Syrian, Iraqi, and other non-Syrian nationalities, including at least 36 who , while the rest were killed during raids and exchange of gunfire between these cells and members of Hayyaat Tahrir al-Sham in the areas of Salqin, Sarmin, Sahel al-Rouj and several other areas in the countryside of Idlib.