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Levant Sources: Alawite Reconciliation Delegation Assassinated While Heading to Meet Julani
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Negotiation File for Releasing 9,000 Detainees Indicates Their Pivotal Role in National Reconciliation Efforts
The London-based Levant newspaper revealed, citing a special source close to the sheikhs, that the Alawite delegation killed was heading to meet Abu Muhammad al-Julani in Damascus, indicating a premeditated betrayal operation.
Unknown gunmen assassinated three Alawite community leaders on the Tartus-Damascus road: Sheikh Jaber Mahmoud Issa, head of the National Reconciliation Initiative, Sheikh Haytham Mala from Baqou village, and Sheikh Muhammad Watfa.
The Syrian Observatory sources confirmed the victims were working on releasing 9,000 military personnel and officers from the previous regime detained in Adra, Hama, and Harim prisons.
Alawite community leaders and victims' families quickly attempted to contain the incident's repercussions by promoting it as a traffic accident.
This crime follows an escalating violence wave that witnessed the assassination of three Alawite judges in western Hama countryside late last year, the first such incident after Assad's regime fall.
Murder crimes have risen to 108 incidents since the regime's fall, claiming 187 lives, including 174 men, 8 women, and 5 children, amid widespread security chaos.
These developments raise concerns about potential attempts to undermine national reconciliation efforts and ignite sectarian tensions between Syrian components, especially between Sunni and Alawite sects.
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