Well-informed source confirmed that the Syrian regime had resettled part of the fighters from al-Fuaa and Kafraya and their families, who left their towns as part of the four cities agreement, in al-Qasayr in central Homs province.
The news was further confirmed by reports on the pro-regime al-Qasayr Local City Council Facebook page.
The Facebook page included the following post, “The city of al-Qusayr held funerary celebrations for the people of al-Fuaa and al-Kafarya who were martyred in the terrorist bombing.” The terrorist bombing is a reference to the bomb attack that targeted the buses carrying evacuees from the two towns in al-Rashidin neighborhood in Aleppo. The post confirms the resettlement of fighters from these towns in al-Qusayr.
The resettlement of fighters and their families from the Shiite towns in al-Qusayr is ironic as it was Iran and the Hezbollah militia who displaced thousands of the town and its countryside’s residents in the second half of 2013.
At the time, the Iranian militia did not hide its intent to turn the city into a sanctuary for Shiites. Youtube videos were posted of heavily armed fighters chanting sectarian slogans and raising a black banner bearing the writing “Oh Hussein” on a mosque in the city.
Since 2013 and the Hezbollah militia and regime forces are preventing al-Qusayr’s residents from returning to it. This situation is not limited to al-Qusayr but extends to areas in Homs and Damascus’ countryside where residents were forcefully displaced and prevented to return.
Activists confirmed that most of al-Qusayr’s villages and towns were emptied of their residents, while the city was turned into military barracks and training centers for Shiite militias, including the influential al-Rida Brigade.