Rif Dimashq | Residents demand release of detainees in Kanaker, and unknown individuals leave graffiti on walls in Zakiyah against presidential election
Rif Dimashq province: SOHR sources have reported that residents staged a sit-in protest, yesterday evening, near al-Qous checkpoint in Kanaker town in western Ghouta, demanding regime forces release the detainees. The protestors blocked the main roads to the town by setting fire to rubber tires.
On the other hand, Observatory activists have monitored new graffiti left by unknown individuals on the walls of Zakiyah town in western Ghouta, some of which read “no legitimacy for al-Assad or his elections”.
On May 8, Reliable sources in western Ghouta in Rif Dimashq have told SOHR that a state of tension is prevailing in Kanaker town between regime security services and the town’s residents. According to SOHR sources, regime security members harassed several civilians from Kanaker, which evolved to hand-to-hand fight and left several people injured.
On May 3, reliable sources told the Syrian Observatory that regime security services arrested, a few days earlier, nearly 20 young people from Kanaker in western Ghouta in Rif Dimashq, as they were attempting to smuggle themselves from Syria to Cyprus, via Tartus port in the Syrian coastline.
According to SOHR sources, most of the arrested young people were wanted of regime security service or military deserters, as they had coordinated with officers in regime army to help them reach Cyprus in return for large sums of money. Meanwhile, the fate of the arrested people remained unknown.
On April 24, reliable sources told SOHR that a delegation of the Russian police and several officers of the 4th Division and the regime’s military security service met with dignitaries and residents from Kanaker town in the Syrian Trading Association in western Ghouta in Rif Dimashq. According to SOHR sources, the delegation listened to the requests of the residents, including the provision of electricity, lifting the strict security measures imposed on Kanaker by easing the checking of travelers from and to the town and the release of prisoners of the people of Kanaker held in regime prisons. The delegation promised to set free the prisoners who were not involved in murders, while the Russians and regime forces asked the dignitaries who attended the meeting to exert pressure on the town’s young men not to express or participate in any hostile activities during the presidential election, including demonstrations, attacks on regime checkpoint and creation of chaos.