An image shows that looters have been stealing the rebar (reinforced steel bar or mesh used in masonry structures) from the roofs of buildings in al Shamali neighborhood in Ma’ar Shoreen village in the eastern suburbs of Idlib governorate. This looting took place after Syrian regime forces seized control of the village on January 26, 2020. Local activists informed the Syrian Network for Human Rights that Syrian regime forces have been looting the contents and fittings of homes and other buildings in areas under their control since the beginning of 2020 in the Idlib region in northwestern Syria, with this theft not limited to household items, furniture, fittings and fixtures, but even extending to the steel materials used to support the roofs.
We can confirm that this looting is a systematic strategy used by the Syrian regime forces and pro-regime militias in all areas controlled by these forces, with the Syrian regime bombing buildings and displacing the owners and residents before pillaging them and stripping them of everything that remains. This is a barbarous multi-dimensional strategy followed by the Syrian regime to maximise victims’ suffering. The SNHR has been working for several months on an expanded report analyzing this systematic phenomenon in multiple regions of various Syrian governorates.
Image source: A video still from footage shared online on July 12 showing buildings in al Shamali neighborhood in Ma’ar Shoreen village. To see video, follow this link:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/19nz1KgAwCPexc4-rfvO2yQJrnh9fZ_uL/view?usp=sharing
