Syrian Rebels in Idlib Target Those Who Might Surrender as Government Assault Looms by Louisa Loveluck and Ghalia Al Alwani – Washington Post
In the northern Syrian town of Harem, militants last week erected a gallows in a public square, saying it was for “frogs,” or traitors.
The town in Idlib province lies within the final enclave controlled by rebels opposed to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. As government forces mass for what could be a climactic assault there in coming weeks, opposition fighters linked to al-Qaeda are seeking to head off the kind of negotiated surrender that has sealed the fate of other opposition areas.
The gallows, which the militants publicized on their official news website, was “set up to intimidate the traitors that worked on reconciliation agreements to the regime, so that they know that in the end their fate is death,” said an activist in the town, speaking on the condition of anonymity to avoid retaliation. “The purpose of its construction is to strike fear.”
Idlib province is home to almost 3 million people, at least half of them displaced from elsewhere in Syria, including hardened fighters who had previously refused to surrender. The province is also a bastion of al-Qaeda-linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, which controls about 60 percent of Idlib, with a Turkish-backed coalition of Islamist rebels holding the rest of the territory…