Anti-ISIS campaign | HTS carries out security crackdown in Idlib

Idlib province: SOHR activists have reported that HTS’s “general security service” has carried out a security crackdown in Idlib and its countryside in the early morning hours of Wednesday.

According to preliminary information, the forces involved in the operation have arrested a number of ISIS members.

On May 24, SOHR activists reported that security forces of HTS arrested the deputy of the Emir of “Ansar Al-Islam”, who is one of its prominent commanders, in “Harim” area northern of Idlib.

It is worth noting that the detainee is the jihadist “Abo Al-Darda’a Al-Kurdy” and one of the most prominent jihadists in the area.

On June 9, Reliable sources informed SOHR that since the early hours of Monday morning, HTS security forces carried out a large-scale security crackdown in areas under its control in Idlib province, searching for wanted persons and suspects accused of promoting drugs.

According to Syrian Observatory activists, Hayyat Tahrir Al-Sham cut off internet and communications to some areas during its security campaign, set up dozens of checkpoints and cracked down the pedestrians. HTS security forces arrested dozens of drug traffickers and then brought the internet and communications services back to areas under HTS control.

It is worth noting that the areas under the control of Hayyat Tahrir Al-Sham and National Army in northern Syria have recently witnessed a high prevalence of narcotics among young people and adolescents due to the rampant drugs that spread widely throughout Syria’s entire geography, in particular in areas controlled by Syrian regime.