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BEIRUT – In the northern city of Harem last week, militants erected a gallows in a public square, saying it was for "frogs" or traitors.
The city of Idlib province lies in the last enclave controlled by rebels opposed to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. As government forces gather for what may be a climatic assault in the coming weeks, al-Qaeda-linked opposition fighters seek to avoid the kind of negotiated capitulation that has sealed the fate of other areas. 'opposition.
The gallows, which activists broadcast on their official news site, was "created to intimidate traitors who were working on reconciliation agreements with the regime, so that they know that their fate is ultimately death," he said. declared a militant of the city. , speaking on condition of anonymity to avoid reprisals. "The purpose of its construction is to scare."
The province of Idlib is home to nearly 3 million people, at least half of whom are displaced elsewhere in Syria, including hardened fighters who had previously refused to surrender. The province is also a stronghold of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (or HTS), linked to Al Qaeda, which controls about 60% of Idlib, with a coalition of Islamist rebels backed by Turkey who holds the rest of the territory .
In the face of a showdown, the rebels arrested and tortured people whom they accused of conceding defeat, sowing fear in the local population. A doctor was recently removed from his home, witnesses said. A pistachio peddler was arrested while masked men were patrolling the street.
"You keep walking and hope that everything will be fine," said a witness of the hawker's detention, speaking under the guise of anonymity for fear of his safety. "Everyone here is paranoid now. Nobody wants to talk.
This image, provided by an activist and a resident of Idlib province, shows protesters chanting flags of the Syrian revolution in Harem on Friday. (Mustafa Alabdullah / via AP)
Surveillance groups and local residents have accused HTS, formerly Jabhat al-Nusra, but Turkish-backed fighters have also arrested dozens of people.
Since 2016, government forces have resumed rebel strongholds one after another, often relying on "reconciliation" agreements to end the fighting. Those who register are usually allowed to stay at home, but under the government regime. Under previous agreements, those who rejected the agreement were allowed to go to Idlib province. Now they are all packed.
HTS leader Abu Muhammad al-Julani, in a video aired late last month, ruthlessly ruled out any reconciliation with the government. Russia, whose military intervention in Syria three years ago saved Assad from a likely defeat, described militants in the province as "hellish abscesses" that should be "liquidated."
The form of an impending confrontation remains uncertain, but it seems even more likely after a summit held on Friday in Tehran with the participation of Russian, Turkish and Iranian leaders. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for a ceasefire in Idlib, warning that any attack could turn into a bloodbath. But Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, both supporters of the Assad government, did not seem convinced.
Putin called a truce "useless" and called for "total annihilation of terrorists in Syria". Supporting the right of the Syrian forces to demand the province, he said: "We consider it unacceptable that the protection of the civilian population is used as a pretext to let the terrorists avoid a strike.
As the main supporter of Syrian rebel groups, Turkey in recent weeks has reportedly increased pressure on HTS to dissolve and prevent a government attack. But experts say the group risks fighting until death.
Western governments and aid groups have warned that a military campaign such as those that broke the former rebel strongholds in Aleppo and eastern Ghouta would be a humanitarian catastrophe.
"Although we all know it. . . Al Nusra is a terrorist organization listed by the Americans, others are not and should not pay the price of the Battle of Idlib, "said Wednesday the US Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura .
During the fighting that took place elsewhere in the country, a network of moles and government informants provided the Syrian army with rebel weapon stock sites and the identity of the rebels. people who maintained schools and opposition hospitals. These government agents also encouraged surrender when the time came.
In an attempt to extinguish this possibility in Idlib, rebel groups began their wave of arrests, accusing those they held of secret communications with government officials. Many were taken to secret and tortured prisons, according to groups documenting the arrests.
"Although this is certainly the reason why some people have been arrested, the problem now is that they are also used by Nusra to stop people who criticize their behavior or to arrest their opponents," said Fadel Abdul Ghany. , director of the Syrian Network for Human Rights, a monitoring group.
Residents interviewed about the arrests in recent weeks, all speaking under the cover of anonymity, described a climate of paranoia.
"The HTS [has] more than one prison and secret prisons in general, and they constantly launch civilians and activists, "said a doctor who recounted the arrest of several of his colleagues. "The layers of doctors are educated in this society. They refused extremist and backward thinking, "he said.
Several groups monitoring the situation have confirmed the existence of detention centers in a network of basements and caves. JAN Violations, who reports allegations of HTS abuse, said the group had at least five prisons in the province, many of them known to be tortured.
Asim Zedan, director of the surveillance group, said HTS had installed hundreds of security cameras in the capital of Idlib province – also called Idlib – to monitor residents.
There are no detailed figures on the number of detentions by rebel groups, due to reporting restrictions in the region. Naji Abu Huzaifa, a spokesman for the Turkish-backed National Liberation Front, said the group has arrested at least 40 people in recent weeks because of its ties to the Syrian government.
According to the Syrian Network for Human Rights, nearly 10,000 people have been arrested by extremist groups during the seven years of conflict. Many are thought to have been executed.
Residents said that it was sometimes difficult to determine whether a disappearance was related to politics, extortion or both. Zedan said several doctors had been kidnapped for large ransoms and that one of them had been tortured and left at the side of the road hours later.
"You can not know how disturbing it is for us to feel caught in the midst of all this fear of an offensive and all that paranoia," said one resident. "You hear things, bad things and you know you're trapped."
Zakaria Zakaria and Erin Cunningham in Istanbul and Suzan Haidamous in Beirut contributed to this report.
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