The leadership of Yarmouk Brigade has confirmed the kidnapping Brigadier pilot Moussa al-Zoubi, the Chief-of-Staff of the Yarmouk Brigade, one of the largest Free Syrian Army formations in the province of Daraa.
The brigade issued a statement saying that Zoubi was kidnapped in an ambush carried out by masked gunmen on the afternoon of 28 June, in the town of Nusaib, in the countryside of Daraa.
The brigade asked the kidnappers to release the brigadier immediately and without conditions. The brigade sais they believe the aim of the abduction is to create a state of chaos and hatred between rebels.
Zoubi was accompanied by General Barakat Zoubi, the commander of Osama Bin Zaid Brigade which is part of Yarmouk Brigade, who was not kidnapped.
Brigadier Zoubi announced his defection in July last year. He was from the town of al-Tiba in the countryside of Daraa. Before he defected, he was the Assistant Commander of Brigade 73 in the Khalkhala military airport in the province of Sweida.
Some media sources accused the Nusra Front of involvement in the kidnapping, because it had already carried out similar kidnapping and arrest operations, including the arrest of dissident Colonel Ahmed al-Nuhme, the head of military council in Daraa.
The kidnapping of Brigadier Zoubi coincided with the abduction of Colonel Abu Fadi al-Muhr, a commander in the Martyrs of Horan Brigade in Sheikh Miskin, by unknown assailants.
Translated and edited by The Syrian Observer
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