Sabotage acts | HTS members loot irrigation pipelines in Qaston Dam in Sahl Al-Ghab

Syrian Observatory activists have reported seeing trucks carrying metal irrigation pipelines, and heavy diggers affiliated to Hayyaat Tahrir Al-Sham stealing other lines, near Qaston Dam in Sahl Al-Ghab in north-western Hama.

 

The factions are used to stealing such objects to extract metal and steel pieces and sell them, as scrap, in areas under their control, while some other pieces are used in erecting barriers near Aleppo-Latakia international highway.

 

On May 6, SOHR sources reported that Hayaat Tahrir Al-Sham and the Turkistan Islamic Party sold their shares from Zayzon power plant to a scrap dealer in rural Idlib.

 

SOHR activists monitored the collapse of the cooling tower after being blown up by Turkestan members in order to extract minerals from it.

 

Dozens of young people from the area were extracting minerals from the plant for years.

 

Since 2015, the thermal plant has been under the control of HTS and Turkistan Islamic Party.

 

On 2 May, SOHR reported that HTS members demolished public properties, south of Aleppo-Latakia highway, for selling the steel they extract form the ruins.

 

For doing such work, HTS exploited the poor unemployed young people in return for inconsiderable wages. Several buildings have been already destroyed in western Idlib near the administrative border with Hama province.

 

Reliable sources also informed the Syrian Observatory that HTS offered what remained of Zayzun thermal power plant as scrap in a public auction in Idlib.