Pro-regime National Defense Militias prevented civilians travelling from Jisr ash-Shughur in the countryside of Idleb from entering the city of Lattakia. Activists in the city told al-Souria Net that queues of cars carrying hundreds of displaced people were lined up at the entrances to the city since last night until this morning.
A citizen returning from Latakia said that regime security forces are preventing people coming from Jisr ash-Shughur from entering the city, following the orders of the province’s governor. The witness said he preferred to remain in Jisr ash-Shughur that to be faced with the treatment he received at the entrance of Lattakia.
In a related development, opposition factions arrested a number of regime soldiers fleeing the military checkpoints in Jisr ash-Shughur. The soldiers failed to find access to regime-held areas as they were unfamiliar with the region’s geography.
Occasional clashes took place between rebels and regime soldiers who fled to the city’s surroundings, many of whom were arrested by the Ahrar ash-Sham Islamic movement.
Ahrar ash-Sham’s commander confirmed that over the next two days, opposition forces will carry out combing operations in Jisr ash-Shughur in order to secure the city. The commander said that recent events in Idleb, Busra al-Harir and Nasib imply to citizens that the Assad regime is unable to protect its supporters.
The group’s commander confirmed that the coming period will witness many surprises in the central regions of Hama and Aleppo in the far north.
Translated and edited by The Syrian Observer
