(Zaman Al Wasl)- Zaman al-Wasl learnt that the international road between Homs and Tartus was cut for several hours on Tuesday, specifically at the village of Oum Haratin, a predominantly Shiite village, situated next to Homs’ refinery, forcing travelers in both directions to alternative routes.
The road was cut by armed mercenaries protesting the regime’s arrest of a drug dealer from Oum Haratin in an attempt to pressure the regime to release him.
Zaman al-Wasl’s reporter in the area mentioned that the traffic on the road is dense, and it came to a complete standstill on Tuesday afternoon until the early hours of the night. The armed sectarian fighters burnt tires and fired towards the regime patrols, and held hostage three patrol members.
To ensure the road remains functional, the regime threatened the villagers of Oum Haratin with attacking their village and sent the MiG airplanes to fly above the village to indicate the regime’s seriousness about ending the situation and opening the road.
There is no official and accurate statistic for the number of Shiites in Homs province, but the estimate is that they number in the tens of thousands and are distributed in several villages mostly in Homs’ eastern and western countryside. Of their most important villages, Oum al-Amad, al-Mazraa, al-Hazmiyeh, al-Raqqah, al-Mukhtareyah… in addition to their presence in al-Abbasiyah and Wadi Iran inside Homs city.
Syria includes several villages and towns with the name Oum Haratin, two of them outside Homs province in Hama and Suweida province other than 6 villages with the same name in Homs’ eastern and western countryside.
These 6 villages are, Oum Haratin Gharbi (close to Jib al-Jarah), Oum Haratin Sharqi (close to al-Masudiyah Buthan Shaaban’s place of birth), Oum Haratin Yahudiyet (subordinate to Kharbet al-Tin), Oum Haratin (subordinate to Hadidet), Oum Haratin (subordinate to al-Rastan), Oum Haratin Atiq (al-Qasir countryside).
Comments About This Article
Please fill the fields below.