Syria regime launches campaign of arrests in Khan Sheikhoun

Demonstrators raise Syrian opposition flags and placards as they rally against a potential rapprochement between Ankara and the Syrian regime, on January 6, 2023. [Photo by OMAR HAJ KADOUR/AFP via Getty Images]

Syrian regime forces launched a campaign of arrests in the city of Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib’s southern countryside, detaining 47 men wanted for not serving in the military reserves.

The military observatory, a site specialised in monitoring developments in the city of Khan Sheikhoun, confirmed that Syrian regime forces arrested the men while others escaped.

Dozens of young men have hidden in the city for fear of being arrested, while others are trying to travel to Lebanon, or to opposition-controlled areas in the northwest of the country, it added.

The site explained that the military campaign against the city of Khan Sheikhoun, which began about three years ago, led to the displacement of most of the population, pointing out that the current residents of the city are a mixture of families who decided to return to the area, and a number of the city’s residents who used to live in the city of Hama, which is under regime control.

The Syrian Network for Human Rights has documented 197 cases of arbitrary arrest in Syria during July, 94 of them were by Syrian regime forces.

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