The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights

To collect ransoms | Armed group kidnaps 14 civilians in Hezbollah areas in Homs

SOHR activists have reported that an armed group has kidnapped 14 young men from Al-Suwaydaa, while they were heading to Lebanon passing through Al-Qasir town, which is controlled by Hezbollah and Iranian militias, in the western Homs countryside.

According to reliable SOHR sources, the civilians were heading to Lebanon for work or migration to nearby countries, to then reach Europe.

On the same context, the kidnappers demanded 50,000,000 Syrian Liras for each kidnapped civilian. Their fate remains yet unknown.

This comes in light of the chaos, insecurity and high crime rate in regime-held areas in Syria.

The Syrian Observatory has documented 51 murders in regime-controlled areas since early 2022, where domestic violence and armed robbery were behind some of these murders while motivations behind the others remained unknown. These murders left 14 children, seven women and 30 men dead.