IDLIB, Syria (North Press) – On Monday, security forces of Watad Petroleum Company, which is completely controlled by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS, formerly al-Nusra Front) in Idlib city, northwest Syria, chased women and children who smuggle diesel.
Military forces of HTS and its civil wing known as the Salvation Government keep on strangling the people in the areas it controls in Idlib and in the countryside of Hama, Aleppo and Latakia.
Scores of HTS members, who deployed in the lands that connect Atmeh town and Deir Balout village to Afrin area, hunted the women and children who smuggle diesel, eyewitnesses told North Press.
HTS members confiscated large quantities of diesel, spilled it on the floor, and burnt it in front of the women and children, the eyewitnesses said.
Every child could carry no more than five liters of diesel as the road is tough and they smuggle it on foot, the eyewitnesses added.
Dozens of displaced families in Atmeh camps near the Syrian-Turkish border sustain on smuggling diesel and sugar from Afrin to Idlib, according to the same eyewitnesses.
HTS monopolies all important economic sectors in the region, and prevents the entry of several basic materials from Afrin to its areas of control in a move to force the residents to buy them from its own companies at a price it fixes.
On February 10, an IDP woman died of her injury after she was shot by HTS members while smuggling fuel near Atmeh.
Following the shooting, dozens of IDPs and residents of Atmeh protested against HTS who dispersed the protests with live bullets.
Reporting by Baha’ Nobani
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