Date: Jan 22, 2019 Source: The Daily Star Civilians pay price of Idlib takeover by extremists Gemma Fox| The Daily Star BEIRUT: A recent deal with Turkish-backed rebel fighters has quietly handed control of Syria’s northwest to Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, and civilians are now terrified of the extrajudicial killings, torture and arbitrary arrests that the Al-Qaeda-linked militants will inflict upon their communities as it tightens its grip on dissent. Hazaa, an activist from Kafranbel in Idlib, knows firsthand how brutally HTS deals with those who question the group. He recalled how, in the early hours of one morning, men from the group’s infamous security branch came to his house, bundled him into a car and took him to an underground prison, where he would later be tortured. “They said it was time to teach me a lesson,” Hazaa told The Daily Star from Idlib. He asked that his full name not be disclosed for fear of violent reprisals from the group. His crime, they told him, was that he had criticized HTS on Facebook and had called for democracy and secularism in Idlib during civil society meetings. “They told me I was a criminal for speaking about these kufr [Arabic for heretical] ideas,” Hazaa said. As punishment, the men tortured Hazaa using a technique known as “shabah.” Hands bound together, he was suspended from the ceiling by the wrists, causing immense agony. “I never thought my actions would have put me in that situation,” he said. In order to be released, he had to sign a document saying that he would never again speak out against HTS or support democratic and secularist ideas. Released from prison after nine days, he considers himself lucky, with many of his friends and fellow activists still detained. HTS, designated as a terrorist group by the West, is accused of being behind the assassinations of several activists, including Radio Fresh FM founder Raed Fares and Hamoud Jneid. Fares was allegedly arrested and tortured by the group several times, but continued to speak out. He was shot dead by unidentified assailants in HTS-controlled Kafranbel. A HTS spokesperson did not reply to The Daily Star’s request for comment about the accusations of human rights abuses. “They imprison and threaten anyone who criticizes them,” activist Ahmad Jalal said. “HTS’ security branch acts in the exact same way as the regime.” Jalal said the branch was often referred to by civilians as “iqaab,” or punishment. “You have no idea what happens to those who are detained,” he said. He also accused the group of interfering in all aspects of civilian life and entrenching its power via local councils. After Fares’ murder, Jalal started publishing leaflets calling HTS enemies of the revolution and allies to President Bashar Assad. In an attempt to silence him, the militants found out where he lived and went to his house, but fortunately, he wasn’t there. He was forced to abandon his home and run away. But civilians fear there is now nowhere to escape HTS. On Jan. 10, Turkey-backed National Liberation Front rebels ceded control of the northwest in a cease-fire deal with the militants. “HTS and NLF signed an agreement to put an end to ongoing fighting ... and establish the control of the Salvation Government in all areas,” HTS said in a statement carried by its propaganda channel Ebaa. The Salvation Government is an Idlib-based administrative body formed by HTS in November 2017. The announcement came after weeklong fighting between both sides, which ended in HTS seizing a number of towns from the rebels. Before the deal, it was estimated that HTS and its allies held sway over roughly 60 percent of opposition-held territory in Syria’s northwest, which stretches over Idlib and Hama provinces. The Salvation Government had previously issued a number of ultimatums against Turkey-backed Syrian opposition groups and demanded they cease all operations in the northwest. The militant alliance is now trying to convince locals that the administration is an independent, civilian-led body. “We don’t have the aim of ruling the liberated north. We want to hand over all our areas to a civilian government,” HTS leader Abou Mohammad al-Julani told the Amjad news agency. Aron Lund, fellow at the Century Foundation, said the idea behind the Salvation Government was to create a “civilianized” umbrella that allows other groups to be co-opted into a HTS-controlled political order, without merging into the alliance itself. “It can be discreetly piloted from behind the scenes by Tahrir’s [HTS] core leadership,” he said. “Those NLF leaders who want to survive inside Idlib without getting on a terrorist list now also have some interest in promoting the idea that the Salvation Government is separate from Tahrir al-Sham, even if they think it’s a fiction.” But the reality on the ground, Lund said, is that there is no longer any real opposition to HTS inside Idlib. Until now, a full-scale offensive against Idlib has been averted because of a deal brokered by Russia and Turkey in September last year. The Sochi deal, which created a buffer zone between regime and opposition forces, also stipulated that “radically minded rebels,” including HTS, had to withdraw. HTS did not leave, and reports are emerging of NLF fighters being pulled from the northwest and moved eastward, allowing Ankara to strengthen its forces in preparation of a possible offensive against Kurdish fighters in the area. “There’s an Ahrar al-Sham component that decided to leave in direction of Afrin but it has not been implemented as of yet,” said Hasan Hajj Ali, spokesperson for the Free Syrian Army in Idlib. Ahrar al-Sham, once allied to HTS, is one of the key factions within the NLF coalition. Husam Hezaber, from Maaret al-Numan in Idlib, said the city’s residents were desperately trying to stop HTS from taking over their city by taking part in weekly demonstrations against the group. “Living under their control means I’ll be at risk of being killed or imprisoned,” he said. “They treat civilians harshly and impose taxes on them,” he said, accusing HTS of targeting those who fail to pay. A few weeks ago, he said a young girl was killed after HTS opened fire on a car after the driver failed to pay taxes to the group. But Hezaber worried the protests wouldn’t keep HTS out of the city for long, and that it would be only a matter of time before the Syrian regime and Russia started bombing the northwest.