The Syrian regime has been holding for several weeks a number of residents of Deir al-Zour who were based in the capital Damascus to pressure Jiash Usud al-Sharqiya so far refuses to enter into a negotiation process that does not include the release faction military prisoners.
Private sources in Damascus confirmed to Zaman al-Wasl that military security elements arrested of civilians from Deir al-Zour last Thursday in Jaramana district in Damascus including children, without explaining the reasons for arrest, or knowledge of their current place of detention, and at the same time it was likely that the arrest was to put pressure on Usud al-Sharqiya to release the captive pilot.
The sources explained that the majority of the detainees are from the city of al-Ashara city in Deir Al-Zour, and that the number of members of the detained families is estimated at 70 while Usud al-Sharqiya and Ahmad al-Abdo forces reject attempts by the regime to extort the families and civilians as human hostages to pressure them to release regime prisoners.
According to the same sources, Usud al-Shariqya is ready to exchange the pilot but with captives of war especially as the faction has repeatedly stressed that the issue of the release of civilians must be committed by all parties signatory to international humanitarian law and human rights principles including the Syrian regime.
Fahd al-Mousa, head of the Syrian Organization for the Release of Prisoners and Detainees," said in a statement to Zaman al-Wasl that the regime is currently holding 15 families from Deir al-Zour including children, women and seniors in light of the insistence of the regime on their exchange the pilot who was recently captured by Usud al-Sharqiya after his jet dropped in the Syrian desert adjacent to Swaida eastern countryside.
He added that in such cases, community refuses to disclose any names or detailed information about the detainees for social reasons, regarding the existence of women among the detainees, and for their families. So circulating the news of their arrest in the media media is an obstacle to the process of their release. Also, families of those detained restoring to bribes will affect their release especially after Usud al-Sharqiya stated that they would not succumb to regime blackmailing.
On the measures taken by the organization to release detainees, al-Mousa explained that the organization exerted all efforts to release the detainees from Deir Al-Zour where they immediately contacted the United Nations to inform it about the situation and also sent to Nicolas Simo, responsible for the file of the Syrian detainees, to find out the status of the detainees.
He also pointed out that the United Nations is currently the mediator to launch the exchange initiative between Hussein Harmoush and pilot Ali al-Helou at the request of the task force responsible for following up the case which consists of the Syrian organization for the Release of Detainees and Prisoners and Usud al-Sharqiya and the Free Syrian Army Command.
Al-Mousa pointed out that the Syrian regime is practicing its sectarianism against the Syrian people and its sect alike, and that through the monitoring and follow-up of the Syrian organization for the release of Detainees and Prisoners for previous exchange issues, there are classifications of the regime regarding its prisoners. The captive which comes from certain families within the Alawite sect takes priority and the rest of the Alawites are second-class, as well as whether the prisoner is from influential families or from poor families.
On the other hand, Zaman al-Wasl tried to communicate with Usud al-Sharqiya to give more information about the file of the detainees from the Deir al-Zour. However, Saad al-Haj, the spokesman for the army apologized and refrained from mentioning any information about them. The reason is maybe the fact that their release is apparently linked to the negotiations between them and the regime over the fate of the captive pilot.
Jaish Usud al-Sharqiya and the Martyr Ahmed al-Abdo forces of the Syrian resistance adopted in mid-August attack on a MiG-23 fighter jet in the eastern Swaida countryside. The attack resulted in the fall and the capture of pilot Ali al-Helu from the western Homs countryside.
Jaish Usud al-Sharqiya is active in the eastern Qalamoon area and in various parts of the Syrian Badiye near the Syrian-Jordanian border. Most of its fighters are from Deir Al-Zour province, and the faction demanded that the Syrian regime exchange its captive pilot with the officer Hussein Harmoush who defected from regime forces and detained regime prisons since 2011.
