Northern Syria -

The Syrian family of Rami Al-Ma’arri met the regime’s recent calls for the residents of Maarat al-Numan city in Idlib countryside to return to their homes with denunciation and mockery, considering it like an attempt to commit suicide and go to death, in addition to the fact that most of the city’s neighborhoods have turned into rubble and piles of dust and stones, as a result of the bombing that targeted city ​​over the past years.

The head of the family, Rami Al-Maarri, confirmed that the displaced people of the city of Maarat and Idlib countryside refuse to return to a city ruled by a regime that killed its children and displaced its people, and that his army looted its homes, stole its crops and destroyed its infrastructure.

Al-Maari said - in an interview with Al-Jazeera Net - that most of the city's residents cannot forget how they were suddenly displaced nearly 3 years ago, leaving all their furniture and luggage in their homes, when the regime's planes targeted any moving target within the neighborhoods.

He pointed out that he and the Idlib displaced prefer to stay in tents, despite the extent of the suffering and the lack of resources, pointing out that they did not support the Syrian revolution in order to return to the embrace of those who went out against him years ago.

More than a week ago, the Syrian regime authorities announced that they had allowed the return of the residents of the city of Maarat al-Numan, after nearly 3 years of controlling it and extracting it from the armed Syrian opposition factions, in a move described as media promotion for the regime’s tightening of its grip on important parts of Idlib countryside, the last opposition stronghold. in northwestern Syria.

According to the loyal "Al-Watan" newspaper, the governor of Idlib, who was appointed by the Syrian regime, Thaer Salhab, announced that the people of Maarat al-Numan would be allowed to return, starting from Sunday, September 25, as part of the steps for national reconciliation, saying that the decision includes all the people of the city, including those residing in the areas. which is under the control of the Syrian opposition.

Maarat al-Numan has turned into a ghost town since the regime took control of it at the beginning of 2020, and its forces desecrated its homes (Al-Jazeera)

Operations room

Since the regime announced its intention to allow the return of the people, local sources confirmed - to Al Jazeera Net - that no family will return to the city, which has a population of about 100,000 people, ruling out that the regime's offers will receive any response from the displaced, even loyal ones.

The Syrian journalist and the son of the city of Maarat Muhammad Karkas believes that it is impossible for the regime to allow the people of the city located in the countryside of Idlib to return for two main reasons: the first is the continuation of theft and looting of homes and buildings to this day in several areas, including the southern neighborhood, because its residents were displaced without taking out anything of their property.

Karkas said - to Al Jazeera Net - that the regime forces are, in the meantime, selling furniture and iron extracted from the roofs and doors of houses to merchants from the Masyaf, Salhab and Lattakia regions, adding that access to iron is done by blowing up the roofs of houses and houses with mines and remnants of war.

Karkas pointed out that the second reason, and the most important, is that the city of Maarat al-Numan has become a military headquarters for the "25th Special Tasks Division" led by Brigadier General in the Syrian regime army Suhail al-Hassan, nicknamed "The Tiger", where a joint military operations room with the Russians is run from. Military operations in the “fourth de-escalation” area, which includes Idlib and parts of the rural areas of Aleppo and Latakia, northwest Syria.

The Syrian journalist points out that the "25th Special Task Force" cannot accept the return of any of the residents, because it is financially beneficiary from the yield of the various agricultural land crops that it guaranteed to people loyal to the regime after seizing it from its displaced owners.

Violations and massacres

Since the beginning of the popular revolution in Syria and its transformation into an armed conflict, the city of Maarat al-Numan, along with the southern countryside of Idlib, has witnessed many violations and massacres against the population, documented by reports of Syrian and international human rights organizations.

On July 22, 2019, the Syrian Civil Defense documented the killing of 42 civilians and the injury of dozens in shelling by Russian warplanes on a popular market in the city of Maarat al-Numan, including women, children and a civil defense volunteer.

More than 5 years ago, the Syrian regime committed a horrific massacre in the city of Khan Sheikhoun, the southern neighbor of Maarat in the southern countryside of Idlib, where more than 100 civilians, including 32 children and 23 women, died in the chemical attacks launched by the regime forces on them using sarin gas.

Despite his denial of the bombing of the city with chemical weapons, the joint investigation mission of the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons confirmed on October 27, 2017, the responsibility of the Syrian regime for carrying out the chemical attack in the city of Khan Sheikhoun.

Maarat al-Numan has witnessed several massacres and violations by the regime forces since the beginning of the Syrian revolution in 2011 (Al-Jazeera)

The last documentation

The lens of Al-Jazeera Net documented about 3 years ago the last hours before the fall of the city of Maarat al-Numan in the hands of the Syrian regime forces, and monitored the movement of the people's displacement due to the missile and artillery shelling.

At that time, Al Jazeera Net interviewed one of the displaced and the director of the civil defense in the city, and they talked about the extent of the bombing and destruction that the city of Abu Ala Al-Maarri has been subjected to in the face of the storming of the Syrian regime.