Homs | Officer of military intelligence branch shot dead by smugglers

Homs province: SOHR sources have reported that a sub-officer in the military intelligence branch was shot dead on Wednesday by a group of smugglers, while he was at a checkpoint on Homs-Hama highway.

 

The attack followed a dispute between the officer and smugglers, after he had prevented a smuggling shipment from passing through the checkpoint, when the smugglers refused the new levy increase that the officer had imposed.

 

According to reliable SOHR sources, the smugglers lured the members of a patrol of the military intelligence away from the checkpoint which is located on Homs-Hama highway, before they managed to kill the officer and injure another member.

 

Local sources have reported that the dead officer had a close relationship with gangs of kidnapers and thieves in northern Homs countryside, where he provided these gangs with information about the owners of luxury cars, including merchants and representatives of commercial companies carrying large sums of money to facilitate the kidnapping of these individuals and looting their properties, after they passed the checkpoint in return for taking the largest share of the revenue of those operations.

 

It is worth noting that the joint military intelligence checkpoint with the 4th Division is considered one of the most troublesome for civilians, where the members of the checkpoint impose levies and accept bribes from people who travel on the highway.

 

This coincided with a state of discontent among civilians who have been unable to put an end to the regime’s security dominance.