Local council of Ariha town, filed a lawsuit against Suqour al-Sham militants being raided by them on Monday Sep. 17, 2018 because of an earlier misunderstanding.
An eyewitness[1] testified to STJ on Sep. 18, 2018:
"Members of the council were meeting humanitarian organizations delegates when an armed man called M.H accompanied by four other heavily armed men, stormed the building at 1:00 pm. They asked the attendants to leave in order to shut down the and when we refused the insulted us and drew their guns and forced us out.”
The militants stayed about an hour in the council’s building during which they seized equipment, tore some printings and confiscated the official stamp seal. A dignitary was called to solve the problem, but the aggressor M.H overreacted and left with the militants without giving the stamp seal back, the eyewitness added
In turn, the legal office of the local council filed a lawsuit against M.H, and the council resumed its work waiting the stamp seal to be restored.
It is an individual assault from M.H side, known as Abu al-Muthanna, whose relatives went to the council, under his mediation, to win one of the small projects it offers, but they couldn’t register because of the crowds, however he thought that it was intentional which led him to storm the council. As the local activists reported.
Earlier, M.H had broken into the municipality building and the real state building and seized sums of money.
STJ had already reported armed aggression and abductions against civilians and medical facilities in Idlib province. [2]
[1] His identity concealed for security purposes.
[2] "Idlib: Assaulting Medical Personnel Becomes More Frequent", STJ, June 25, 2018.
https://www.stj-sy.org/en/view/610
"Armed men Kidnap Dr. Khali Agha and Hospitals Suspend Work in Protest", STJ, Aug. 9, 2018. https://www.stj-sy.org/en/view/666
"A Remarkable Increase in Killings and Abductions of Civilians Due to Insecurity- Idlib province", STJ, July 5, 2018. https://www.stj-sy.org/en/view/618