Al-Qaeda wing in Syria executes two men on charges of spying for the regime

Nusra militant execution a Syrian man in Idlib. File photo

ARA News

IDLIB – Militants of the al-Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front executed on Thursday two young men in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province on charges of spying for the Syrian regime’s forces.

Mahir Hajj Muhammad and Yousef al-Hasnawi were publicly executed in the Kafr Takharim town of Idlib countryside.

“Nusra accused them of leaking security information about the movements of the Islamist rebels in Idlib to pro-Assad forces,” a spokesman for the Department of Justice in Idlib told ARA News, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The Nusra Front, al-Qaeda wing in Syria, said in a statement that Muhammad and al-Hasnawi were arrested last week.

“Interrogations confirmed their involvement in spying for the Assad regime,” it said. “Their cooperation with the regime’s secret service outside Idlib province had facilitated airstrikes on the rebels’ headquarters.”

Nusra militants shot the two young men dead in a public square in Kafr Takharim on Thursday evening.

Last week, pro-Assad air forces hit command centers for al-Nusra Front and Ahrar al-Sham Movement in Idlib province, killing and wounding a number of leading members of the Islamist rebel groups. 

Reporting by: Issam al-Hassan

Source: ARA News