Fear of facing the same fate of tens of people missing, members of ISIS clash with Hayaat Tahrir al-Sham in the northeastern countryside of Hama
Violent clashes have been taking place between ISIS members against members of Hayaat Tahrir al-Sham since the dawn of Monday the 9th of October 2017 in areas in the northeastern countryside of Hama opposite to the area of Wadi Al-Azeeb in the northeastern countryside of Salmiyah, which are separated by a mined area controlled by the regime forces.
In the details obtained by the SOHR, tens of people crossed the regime-held area and the mined area, towards the areas controlled by Hayaat Tahrir al-Sham, and within the numbers of civilian group who crossed, there are ISIS members, who refused to obey the orders of Hayaat Tahrir al-Sham to turn themselves in as usual during the transfer process of groups from Wadi al-Azeeb area in the eastern countryside of Salmiyah to the areas controlled by Hayaat Tahrir al-Sham
The Syrian Observatory learned from several reliable sources that the members of ISIS are used to turn themselves in each time to the headquarters of Tahrir al-Sham but this time, violent clashes took place between the two parties in the areas of al-Rahjan and Abu Lafa, fearing the same fate of those ISIS members who got arrested by Tahrir al-Sham and went missing. The sources confirmed to the Syrian Observatory that the members of Tahrir al-Sham , who originally come from al-Shuaytat tribe, arrested during the past 2 weeks about 70 members of the organization fleeing the eastern countryside of Hama, which was recently controlled by the regime forces, including about 20 injured ISIS members and some of them need immediate treatment in hospitals and medical centers, but the members of al-Shuyatat arrested them and took them to unknown destinations, where tensions is prevailing among the families of those ISIS members, amid information about executions of them, while sources in Hayaat Tahrir al-Sham said that the captured ISIS members are being subjected to “legitimate session” and will later be released, while they don’t announce their whereabouts.
The SOHR published that the 4th of October 2017 that the regime forces continue their advancement operation in the besieged circles which consists of the eastern countryside of Salmiyah along with other villages located in the administrative borders of Homs after less than 24 hours of dividing the besieged circle with the support of the militiamen loyal to them. The SOHR learned that the regime forces managed to impose their full control over this besieged circle, while the regime forces continue sweeping the area to impose their full control in it. ISIS also has been fighting violently in the past 4 weeks to prevent the regime forces from advancing and controlling this area, which led to end the presence of ISIS in the eastern countryside of Salmiyah.
This huge loss of the organization came after one month of beginning the violent offensive by the regime forces in the area, where the strategic advancement of the regime forces and their allied militiamen of Syrian and non-Syrian nationalities with the support of the artillery and missile shelling and Russian and the regime air cover on the eastern countryside of Hama, forced the organization to lose its full presence in the entire province of Hama after 3 years of controlling the eastern countryside of Hama, while the violent clashes left hundreds of people killed in both parties.