Armed robbers stalk northeastern Syria’s country roads

ERBIL/HASAKAH — Just after midnight, four gunmen on motorcycles rode out of the darkness on a road north of Hasakah city, heading straight for Hassan Ahmad (a pseudonym) and his relative. 

The car they were driving had broken down on June 8 near Bako, a village 12 kilometers north of the northeastern city. Ahmad was trying to move it when the gunmen arrived, intent on robbing them. 

When the 44-year-old tried to defend himself with a wooden stick, one of the attackers shot him. His relative responded by firing from his own pistol, forcing the would-be robbers to flee, Ahmad recounted to Syria Direct.

When darkness falls across northeastern Syria, roads linking provinces, cities and towns controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) turn treacherous. Despite the presence of Internal Security Forces (Asayish) checkpoints, some are risky even in broad daylight. Islamic State (IS) cell activity is a regular threat, while armed robbers—alone or in groups—prey on passing vehicles.

Dangerous roads

Several kilometers from Hasakah city, a road branches off of the main Hasakah al-Hol road, leading towards the Hasakah South Dam (also known as the al-Bassel Dam). Known locally as the “petroleum road” for the many oil wells alongside it, it is one of the most dangerous roads in Syria’s northeastern Jazira region, even in the daytime. 

Many robberies have taken place on the petroleum road this year, with victims shot by bandits originating in the small villages scattered alongside it, several local sources told Syria Direct. 

On June 14, 27-year-old Alan Omar, who lives in Hasakah city’s Tal Hajar neighborhood, was robbed while taking the petroleum road back to the city from the Hasakah South Dam. The road has no Asayish checkpoints. 

While Omar drove, two gunmen on a motorcycle intercepted him near the village of Nahhab. They stole his mobile phone and a box of fish he had with him, weighing between 20 and 25 kilograms, alongside around 500,000 Syrian pounds ($34 at the current black market exchange rate of SYP 4,650 to the dollar). He estimated his total losses in the incident at around $300. 

“I saw the gunmen with my own eyes, the moment they came out of Nahhab village,” Omar told Syria Direct. “They blocked the road and pointed a weapon in my face.” He alleged the two young men who robbed him were from “the al-Sharibin clan, who live in the village.” Omar owns a meat and fish shop in Hasakah, and regularly takes the petroleum road to buy fish from fishermen at the dam’s lake. 

The road from Hasakah city to al-Hol camp—an SDF-run detention site for the families of IS members—is no less dangerous. It has also seen many armed robberies of civilians and employees working for international organizations and relief groups providing services to those held in al-Hol. In July, gunmen on motorcycles intercepted a car transporting employees of the Save the Children organization to al-Hol camp, located 45 kilometers east of Hasakah city. 

Ahmad Khalil (a pseudonym) works for an international organization based in Hasakah city and regularly drives its employees to al-Hol. Each trip fills him with “fear and anxiety, both going and coming,” he told Syria Direct. He is even more anxious after witnessing the armed robbery of another organization’s vehicle in May while he was just a few dozen meters away. 

When he arrived at the scene of the incident, Khalil learned one employee “was stabbed with a knife, and the others were beaten by the attackers, who fled after the robbery,” he said. He believes “there is a relationship and communication between the attackers and people in [al-Hol] camp,” as robberies “are on the days salaries are distributed to employees in the camp.”

Most robberies happen in the Rad al-Shaqra area, near Syrian regime-controlled Jabal Kawkab, during the day, as the road to al-Hol is impassable in the evening because of the danger, several sources told Syria Direct. 

Local and international organizations have suspended their operations in al-Hol on multiple occasions after their vehicles were robbed while en route to the camp. This caused “a temporary halt in humanitarian supplies,” Daoud Daoud, the head of Peace and Civil Society Center (PCSC), a Hasakah-based humanitarian organization, said. PCSC works on community empowerment in northeastern Syria through development and relief projects, including in al-Hol.

Robberies not only endanger the lives of ordinary travelers and aid workers, but cause stress and feelings of insecurity. This “affects their performance and job satisfaction, and may lead some employees or volunteers to withdraw from the work because they are afraid,” Daoud said. 

The stoppage of humanitarian organizations’ work, meanwhile, ultimately impacts beneficiaries, whose trust in organizations is declining. 

Repeated security incidents also require increased spending on security and protection, cutting into the resources available for projects. Organizations may have to reevaluate implementation sites or delay projects, “affecting the timetable of humanitarian interventions,” Daoud added. 

Security challenges also make it more challenging to attract new funding for projects due to the risks associated with operating in unsafe areas, he said. 

Fear limits movement

To protect their employees from robberies, international organizations transport their staff to al-Hol in multi-vehicle convoys, which at times reach up to 25 cars. But this practice “delays the employees’ arrival,” Khalil said. 

Meanwhile, “employees do not carry, for example, their valuable phones or gold while going to the camp,” Khalil added. He personally does not carry more than SYP 300,000 ($20) with him when he drives to al-Hol. 

The “outer road” linking Hasakah city and Deir e-Zor runs for 180 kilometers. It is among the routes that have no civilian movement at night, when it is only traveled by SDF military forces. Locals avoid traveling to other cities in the northeast at night “for fear of IS cells or being robbed,” Taha Ismail, a journalist from Deir e-Zor, told Syria Direct. 

Near this road, unidentified gunmen attacked vehicles belonging to ITF Enhancing Human Security (ITF), an international organization specializing in mine clearing, on the morning of September 18. They stole equipment, an ambulance and mobile phones from the employees. 

“I could have been robbed too,” Hadi Ahmad Hajj Said, who passed by the scene less than an hour after the incident and saw Asayish patrols and civilian vehicles gathered at the site, said. 

The northern Hasakah road leading to the M4—the middle of which branches off towards Qamishli city in the east, Amouda in the north and Tal Tamar and al-Dirbasiyeh in the west—is also treacherous at night. Several armed robberies have taken place near the Bako village bridge, 13 kilometers north of Hasakah city. 

For several years, Omar Ahmad, a 50-year-old taxi driver in Hasakah, has refused any request to travel outside it after sunset. “The roads are not safe at night, and robberies happen constantly,” he told Syria Direct. He limits his work to the city limits, or nearby villages, provided the journey is in the daytime.

Samer Abdulqader (a pseudonym), who works as a tow truck driver, also refuses any call from outside Hasakah city, with the exception of roads north and west of it. Even there, the 44-year-old only works with “people I know, and during the daytime.” As for roads east and south of the city, “I don’t travel them, day or night,” he said. 

Abdulqader’s fear of falling prey to armed robbery has reached the point of refusing to help his own brother, whose “car broke down before sunset near Bako village, north of Hasakah, at sunset” one day in August. “We left it until the next morning,” he said. 

Earlier this year, one of Abdulqader’s friends was robbed, shot and injured by attackers outside Hasakah. One of his relatives was also robbed, losing around $1,300. The repeated incidents make him even more cautious about agreeing to any request for a tow. 

Weak deterrence

Asayish checkpoints are deployed on most roads connecting AANES areas of control, but their presence “is not a deterrence,” Khalil, the driver with an international organization, said. He views this as a sign of the weakness of these security forces. 

“The lack of applying strict laws against the attackers leads to the problem worsening and incidents recurring,” Omar’s wife said.

After the ITF vehicles were looted in September, social media was flooded with sarcastic comments, with some criticizing local security forces for not implementing effective strategies to combat armed robberies and secure roads under their control. “Where is the ruling authority?” one asked. 

The AANES Penal Code classifies some armed robberies as “aggravated theft” if at least three of the following circumstances are met: the robbery takes place at night, is carried out by two or more people, the robbers are masked, or one or all of them carry a weapon and coerce or threaten those present, alongside other circumstances. 

Aggravated theft is one of the most serious types of theft, as stated in Article 245 of the code, and is punishable by between 10 and 15 years’ imprisonment and a fine of SYP 5 million. 

On June 13, the Asayish arrested seven people they said were involved in armed robberies in the Hasakah countryside and seized weapons in their possession. In early October, the forces launched a security campaign in the southern Hasakah countryside and arrested “54 gunmen.”

Some residents are still frustrated. In mid-June, Ragheb Ibrahim Rasho and his friends were attacked by would-be robbers in the petroleum road. One of his friends rushed to an Asayish checkpoint to ask for help after they were shot, “but they didn’t help, saying they weren’t authorized to move from their post,” the 74-year-old said. 

From his home in Hasakah city, Rasho recounted the details of what happened that day, which almost cost him his life. Clashes broke out between the group of people he was with and armed bandits, resulting in him and two of his friends being injured. One of the attackers was also injured and carried away by his companions, who fled to a nearby village.

More than two months after the incident was reported, “nothing has come of it,” Rasho told Syria Direct just before the Asayish’s early October security operation against local robbers. 

Syria Direct contacted the co-presidency of the Internal Security Forces in Jazira canton for an official statement on the armed robberies and the forces’ role combating them, but received no response by the time of publication. 

After he was shot in June, Ahmad was taken to the al-Hikma Hospital in Hasakah city for treatment. Hours later, another patient arrived with a skull fracture. It was the same person who attacked Ahmad, and who was also injured in the incident. He “escaped from the hospital” before he could be arrested, Ahmad said. 

Ahmad has hired a lawyer to follow up the case, “to no avail” so far. “The security forces have not been able to arrest him, even though they arrested the person who accompanied him to the hospital,” he said. 

This report was originally published in Arabic and translated into English by Mateo Nelson.