Homs | Gang close to Hezbollah kidnaps three women near Syria-Lebanon border

Homs province: SOHR sources have reported that three women were kidnapped by an armed group affiliated to a gang headed by “Shujaa Al-Ali,” who is close to the military intelligence branch and Lebanese Hezbollah and his gang is responsible for kidnapping and intimidating civilians in west Homs countryside. The three women were kidnapped on the road between Hadidah and Um Al-Dawali villages near the Syria-Lebanon border, while they were heading to Lebanon.

Reliable SOHR sources have reported that the kidnapped women included a girl who was on her way to Lebanon to marry a Syrian young man, after he had failed to return to Syria, because he is prosecuted by Syrian regime intelligence service over his participation in the public uprising in Homs province in the period between 2011 and 2018.

Despite efforts by the kidnapped women’s families to mediate and set them free, “Shujaa Al-Ali” has refused to release before taking a ransom of 15,000 USD, according to SOHR sources.

Last week, the same gang kidnapped a woman from Talbiseh city and released her only when her husband paid a ransom of 4,000 USD.

According to a local source in Hadidah village, the gang of “Shujaa Al-Ali” has become the largest gang ever in the western countryside of Homs, as it comprises nearly 250 gunmen provided with light and medium weapons, and the gang’s members practice their predominance in the villages of Balqasah, Jadidah and Kherbet Al-Tin and the towns of Um-Haratayn, Al-Haythamiyah and Al-Mushayrifah.

The source, speaking anonymously due to the sensitivity of the issue, told SOHR that all violation by “Shujaa Al-Ali” gang against civilians, including blackmailing, kidnapping and asking for ransoms, were committed in coordination with the head of the air-force intelligence branch, brigadier general “Shafiq Sarem,” who provide protection for the gang’s gunmen and prevent other security branches in Homs province from prosecuting them.

It is worth noting that several residents from Al-Rastan city have threatened to stop people from the western countryside of Homs, while traveling on Homs-Hama highway which runs through the eastern part of the city, in the case that the kidnapped women were not released soon. The residents have held the regime’s security and intelligence service responsible for the escalation which would the region experience in the incoming days.