Rampant Looting and Extortion of Civilians in Regime-Held Areas

Activists said that regime forces continue to extort civilians and loot houses in areas still under their control. There has been lately high increase in extortion of civilians at the regime’s checkpoints, especially in the city of Hama. Regime forces manning these checkpoints stop civilians to search their mobile phones, and under the pretext of finding anti-regime material they humiliate the civilians and confiscate their mobile phones. Activists also said that regime forces continue to loot civilian homes in the areas they capture, citing the town of Mleiha in East Ghouta as an example of the rampant looting. Activists said that a truck loaded with stolen furniture is sold for $100,000 SYP on the outskirts of Jaramana. (Source: Syrian Coalition + Hama Media Center)