Regime-backed militias and Lebanese Hezbollah continue looting civilians’ properties in Saraqeb

SOHR activists have reported that regime forces and Hezbollah-backed militias continue looting civilians’ properties in areas which have recently come under control of the Syrian regime, after forcing the residents to displace. Members of regime-backed militias and the Lebanese Hezbollah appeared in a video footage, of which the Syrian Observatory received a copy, devastating the roofs of residential houses in the western neighbourhood of Saraqeb city in the eastern countryside of Idlib. The militiamen extract metal objects and steel from the rubble in order to sell them, after they had looted the civilians’ houses and stole their contents.

 

On May 22, Observatory activists monitored members of Iranian-backed militias, Lebanese Hezbollah and Syrian regime commemorating the “Quds Day” in Saraqeb city in the eastern countryside of Idlib. the Palestinian “Liwa al-Quds”, Iranian-backed militias and the Lebanese Hezbollah raised signboards in Saraqeb city with slogans written on them, they read “America is the utmost devil – Al-Quds is the capital of Palestine”.

 

The participated militiamen also lifted posters of the former IRGC-Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani, and burned American and Israeli flags.

 

The city of Saraqeb has been empty of population as its residents fled the military operations in the area a few months earlier. These operations led the regime forces and loyal militias to capture the city after fierce hit-and-run clashes with Turkish-backed factions and Jihadi groups in February.