Rif Dimashq | “Al-Baath” Battalions shoot two young men dead, after refusing to stop at checkpoint near Syria-Lebanon border
Rif Dimashq province: SOHR sources have reported the death of two young men after being shot by members of “al-Baath” Battalions stationed in Madaya town on the Syria-Lebanon border in the north-western Rif Dimashq. According to SOHR sources, the two young men refused to stop at the makeshift checkpoint which affiliated to al-Baath Battalions in Madaya town, which spurred the members stationed on the checkpoint to open fire directly on the two young men, killing them immediately. It is worth noting that one of the victims was from Madaya town, while the other had been displaced from Darya city in western Ghouta in Rif Dimashq.
On September 12, SOHR sources reported that the 4th Division, headed by Maher al-Assad the brother of the Syrian President, replaced the National Defence Forces that had been deployed at several checkpoints of in the areas of Raknous, Qarah, Aassal al-Ward in west Qalamon in Rif Dimashq at the Syria-Lebanon border.
Members of the 4th Division who deployed recently at these checkpoints imposed levies on the residents, especially the farmers, under the pretext that they garnered large profits from trafficking operations to and from Lebanon.
The 4th Division members imposed a levy of 50,000 Syrian lira (14 US dollars) on every car of farmers weekly to allow them to cross comfortably. According to SOHR activists, the 4th Division’s leaders had met with drugs merchants in the region and asked them to pay levies for allowing them practicing their suspicious business, after some NDF leaders had facilitating the business of these traders and their partners in the region that is considered the main path of drugs into Syria on the Syria-Lebanon border.
Merchants from the rest of the Syrian regions had bought Hash from well-known persons having good relations with the National Defence Forces, before NDF presence were confined only to west Qalamon in Rif Dimashq at the Syria-Lebanon border.