Assad regime evicts 30 families from southern Syrian province

By Ahmet Karaahmet, Ethem Emre Ozcan and Mehmet Burak Karacaoglu

IDLIB, Syria (AA) – The Bashar al-Assad regime forcibly displaced some 30 families Friday from Syria’s southern Quneitra province to northern Idlib city under the control of opposition.

Some 150 people have been evicted from Quneitra, which is located adjacent to the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights region.

The families were placed in briquette houses built by Turkish NGOs in Idlib.

“They want to settle Hezbollah and Iranians in our homes. We had been under blockade for about 3 years. They started to detain our young people,” Mohammed Said, one of the displaced civilians, told Anadolu Agency.

“They besieged us. They did not leave us alone and forced us to migrate. I hope Assad regime will fall and we will return to our country,” Um Muhammed, another civilian who took refuge in Idlib, said.

After imposing a blockade and carrying out massive attacks, the Assad regime completely took over Quneitra in mid-2018.

More than 10,000 people had been evacuated from Dara’a and Quneitra to the regions in northern Syria in July 2018.

Syria has been in a civil war since early 2011, when the regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity.

Around half a million people have been killed, and more than 12 million had to flee their homes in the past decade.

*Writing by Zehra Nur Duz