Economic Crisis Worsens Across Syria, Tensions Break out in Assad’s Hometown

A new human rights report released by a UK-based war monitor has raised the alarm on the Syrian economic crisis worsening in regime-controlled areas and highlighted growing tensions in the Syrian President Bashar Al-Asssad’s hometown, Al Qardaha.

Noting that famine could be on the horizon for regime-held areas, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that Syrians “are suffering from astronomically inflated prices of basic essentials and the acute shortage of bread and fuel.”

The Observatory, in its report, said the regime had failed to find workable solutions for critical crises and was confronted by a surge of violence, assassinations and protests across areas of its control in March this year.

In the southwestern province of Daraa, activists documented 48 deaths during March alone.

“All fatalities were killed in assassinations with gunfire and IED attacks in different areas of Daraa province, mostly in the province’s western countryside,” the Observatory said, revealing that 39 regime soldiers, security personnel and collaborators were killed.

In Quneitra, another southwestern Syrian province, the human rights watchdog reported that five members of regime forces were killed in March.

The violence, however, did not exclusively affect regime officials and soldiers.

In Sweida province, for example, five civilians were murdered.

“A man was shot dead by members of regime security services in Um Al-Ruman village in southern Sweida,” the report said.

“Two unidentified men were found dead in Kherbeh town in the western countryside of Sweida,” it added, noting that one of the other victims was a Jordanian national who was shot near a provincial hospital, while the other was farmer who got killed while trying to defend himself against unidentified gunmen.

Considerable conflict had also broken out in Latakia province’s Qardaha town, which is known to be the home ground of the Assad family.

According to the Observatory, pro-regime families had experienced infighting over trade disputes connected to the import and export of electronics, PCs, laptops and other devices.

It is worth noting that the report also cited incidents that took place in the Syrian capital Damascus, and the provinces of Homs, Aleppo, and Deir ez-Zor.