New abduction in regime-held areas | Unidentified gunmen kidnap man in Al-Suwaydaa countryside

During the past hours, unidentified gunmen kidnapped a man from Homs province while he was near Umm Al-Zaytoun village in northern countryside of Al-Suwaydaa, SOHR activists reported.

According to Syrian Observatory activists, the kidnapped came from Homs to Al-Suwaydaa to apply for a job offered by his relative. The fate of the kidnapped person and the hijackers’ identity remained unknown.

In July 2022, SOHR activists documented the arrest of eight people, including three children, as well as only one kidnapping case.

Here are further details of the arrests by regime forces and security services in July:

July 7: A civilian from Al-Suwaidaa was arrested arbitrarily by members of a patrol of the regime Ai-force Intelligence service near Baghdad bridge in the capital Damascus, and he was taken to a security centre in Harasta in Rif Dimashq.

July 8: Regime security services arrested three children in Daraa Al-Mahatah for unknown reasons and took them to an unknown destination.

July 13: Regime security services in Homs arrested a person of Bani Khalid tribe for unknown reasons. The arrested man lived in Al-Rukban camp at Syria-Jordan-Iraq border triangle in the Syrian desert, then he left the camp months earlier and struck a “reconciliation” deal with regime’s security services.

July 15: Members stationed at a checkpoint of the regime Air-force Intelligence service on Homs highway, near Baghdad bridge, arrested a young man from Jasim city in northern Daraa for unknown reasons. The young man returned from Lebanon to Syria a short time earlier.

July 23: Two young men from Da’el in middle Daraa countryside were arrested by regime security services in the area between Sheikh Maskin city and Abtaa town in Daraa countryside.

The only kidnapping case in regime-controlled areas in the past month was documented in mid-July when a civilian was kidnapped by unknown gunmen in Alma town in the eastern countryside of Daraa.