The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights

Hayyaat Tahrir Al-Sham puts its checkpoints and members on the alert and blocks the roads at Bab Al-Hawa in conjunction with the start of demonstrations in several areas in Idlib countryside

Border areas have been witnessing security alertness since  morning, where security checkpoints of Hayyaat Tahrir Al-Sham and another faction have been set up on the roads to Bab Al-Hawa, as a part of high security procedures in order to prevent any problems during the demonstrations that will be launched today, after calls by activists to express their demands in the shadow of the deteriorating situation that the residents reached represented by the destruction and displacement,  while Hayyaat Tahrir Al-Sham deployed its checkpoints on the roads in Sarmada and the vicinity of Al-Dana, also security checkpoints have been spread in the vicinity of the camps of Al-Karama and Atma north of Idlib at the border with Iskenderun, it also blocked most of the roads to the border checkpoint of Bab Al-Hawa, where the roads have been temporarily blocked in Atma, Sarmada and Babasqa all of which lead to the crossing, it also blocked all the roads to Bab Al-Hawa Hospital except one road that left only for ambulances.

And in connection to this, tens of people gathered in Bab Al-Hawa Square at the northern outskirts of Sarmada town, raising banner of the Syrian revolution, amid intensive security tightening by the factions, and such steps come in the frame of the efforts to protect the crossing from being closed and -as a result- losing income, in addition to preventing the demonstrators from advancing towards the border strip and preventing problems like those witnessed during the last Friday’s demonstrations there, which ended with the storming of the crossing by demonstrators where the Turkish Border Guard Forces used tear gas, reliable sources confirmed that the security alertness will continue until late house of this day, the SOHR also monitored that several demonstrations are underway now in the cities of Idlib and Ariha and several towns and villages in the northern sector of Idlib countryside, condemning the military operations by the Russians and the regime in the area and the displacement of its residents amid Turkish silence.

The SOHR published on the 5th of September 2019, that a number of protesters who went out in the recent demonstrations against “Al-Julani” and the Turkish president, have received direct threats by the security services of the factions in conjunction with inclusive threats to all of those who went out in these demonstrations after being described as “frogs” and “regime’s agents”, and in this context, the Syrian Observatory has received a copy of a video shows the young man who burnt the picture of the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, about a week ago in Killi town north of Idlib, apologizing to Turkey, command and people, he also thanked Turkey for accommodating the Syrian people, then he finished his talk with justifying his act of burning the picture and that he was unaware of doing so and said that the regime’s agents and those foisted among the demonstrators exploited the demonstrators’ enthusiasm and the feeling of anger towards what happened in Idlib of killing, destruction and displacement, the SOHR also monitored marches that went out in support to “Hayyaat Tahrir Al-Sham” and its leader “Al-Julani” in Salqin city, where the SOHR’s activists monitored tens of people in their vehicles raising the banners of “Tahrir Al-Sham” and roaming the city of Salqin just before today’s sunset, Thursday, where local sources confirmed that all of them are security members of Tahrir Al-Sham in addition to a number of the locals, and Hayyaat Tahrir Al-Sham dominates the border areas with Turkey in Idlib province, and the city of Salqin is considered an administrative and economic center within the border section of the Salvation Government that is loyal to Hayyaat Tahrir Al-Sham.

The SOHR published on the 3rd of September 2019, that members of Hayyaat Tahrir al-Sham and its loyalists spread several threats against the demonstrators who came out against Hayyaat Tahrir al-Sham and its leader “al-Julani” both on the ground and on social media platforms, sometimes considering the demonstrators as “frogs”, agents, rats, and manipulators against Hayyaat Tahrir al-Sham other times, which are methods adopted by the dictator regimes usually, through accusing those who oppose them of being agents, rats, and conspirators who take money from outside parties, where the Syrian Observatory monitored the diversity of these methods of threat, some of which came as a “circular” through military observatories and the media loyal to Hayyaat Tahrir al-Sham which publish it, and others through preachers of mosques as if the citizen sees with his eyes a member of regime’s security delivers directions of the leadership to his against, where one circular warns: “any demonstration in the liberated north against any of the Jihadi military factions will be considered as a march supporting the regime forces; helping and advocating the enemy to enter the Nusayris, the Russian invader, and the Iranian criminal, and desecration of our land our honor, and they will be treated as Shabiha, agents, and frogs,” and phrases carrying a direct threats that may reach opening fire on demonstrators and threaten their safety: “beware of the patience if he gets angry”.

“The blood of our martyrs and our wounded, widows, families, religion, land, honor are duty upon us until our last breath,” also another circular that insults the minds of the recipient of these instructions, which have become a disgusting thing shows the lowness of those behind them said: “regime’s militias recirculate the resolution 4/4362 of their agents in the liberated areas, which stipulate that their agents must engage in the demonstrations against the Syrian country as they say, and try to change their course against terrorist groups,” and the previous circular continues with a warning and a threat: “O our brothers help us in uprooting all those who call for sedition and fighting the factions whomever they are, inside the demonstrations or outside of them, it is everyone’s responsibility, the last place we have is the Syrian north, do not let the frogs seduce you and hand over what is left.”

In the same context, the Syrian Observatory published on the 2nd of September 2019 that the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitored thousands of people taking part in several demonstrations today evening, within cities and towns in Idlib province and the surrounding countryside which are under the control of Hayyaat Tahrir Al-Sham and other factions, denouncing Hayyaat Tahrir Al-Sham and its practices and against its commander “Al-Julani”, the chief of Hayyaat Tahrir Al-Sham which is in control of the liberated territory, and in the details obtained by activists of the SOHR; wrathful demonstrations took place in Kafr Takharim, Ariha and Maarrat Al-Nu’man, in solidarity with Saraqeb town, demanding the exit of “Hayyaat Tadmir Al-Sham” –”the Levant Destruction Committee” as the demonstrators described it-, where the demonstrators chanted slogans against Al-Julani and his faction in addition to slogans calling to overthrow Al-Assad’s regime, where in Kafr Takharim, the demonstrators chanted “Oh Idlib, Curse your Traitors … Al-Julani is the one who sold you out … and he is handing in your towns”,  and in Ariha city, the demonstrators chanted “Ariha is Free and Al-Julani has to go out”, “Julani, you are nothing and we don not want you anymore”, and in Maarrat Al-Nu’man, they chanted “down with Al-Julani”, they also raised banners wrote on them “we thought him Julani -from Al-Golan- but we found him Tehrani -from Tehran” and “to the faithful members of Tahrir Al-Sham, the Revolution is worthier and more precious than Al-Julani”, and near Idlib countryside, a mass demonstration went out in Atarib city in the western countryside of Aleppo against Tahrir Al-Sham and its practices, where the demonstrators stoned a police outpost of Hayyaat Tahrir Al-Sham, which was met by heavy gunfire by the members of the outpost to disperse the protesters, igniting a new discontent against Tahrir Al-Sham’s practices in the area.

And in the same context, the activists of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitored yesterday evening nearly 500 residents taking part in a demonstration in Saraqeb city south-east of Idlib, where the demonstrators denounced the Russian massacres committed against the citizens in the “de-escalation” zone, the demonstrators also called to overthrow the head of Hayyaat Tahrir Al-Sham through slogans they chanted throughout the demonstration, like “Julani, you are nothing and we don not want you anymore – Curse your Soul, Julani – Idlib is free and Hayyaat Tahrir Al-Sham must go out”.