ALEPPO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th February, 2020) Deals between terrorist groups, salary slips for radical fighters, arrest records of a mock justice system are some of the many documents found by a Sputnik correspondent while exploring areas in northern Syria that were recently liberated from terrorist rule.
The documents, seemingly left behind in a hurried exit at the approach of government forces, shed light on the reign of terror exacted on the local civilian population.
A contractual agreement found in a makeshift prison -a former shopping mall - in the town of Hraytan just north of Aleppo, dictated an agreement whereby a local subsidiary of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham terrorist organization (formerly known as Jabhat al-Nusra, banned in Russia), Fursan al-Khilfah, was to buy the warring services of another, smaller group which calls itself Kitabat Ansar.�
The document stipulated that the latter would be paid a wage and receive a share of the loot. Fursan al-Khalifah also promised to treat Kitabat Ansar's injured and pay for those who would be killed.
The dry tone in which the agreement spoke about payments for battles, guarantees of treatment in case of injury, and payments to the group in case of death in action, point to a cold disregard for human life and a purely transactional approach to fighting from warlords.
Several pointers in the contract describe sharing of loot, with the Fursan entitled to two-thirds while the the Ansar could claim one-third of all that is captured in battle.
It is unknown if the deal was ever agreed upon as the contract bore no signatures.
Another document included reports on salaries paid to militants in training camps and deals which confirm the former dominant presence of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.
The financial reports listed hundreds of people who were trained in the Ibn Taymiyyah camp near Aleppo, which is known as one of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham's largest training facilities.
Instead of referring to the militants by their first and last names, the documents only mentioned their nom-de-guerres, such as Abu Bakar Ansari, Abu Maleki and so on. The reports also included the year of birth of and the amount of money paid to each militant � 20,000-25,000 Syrian Pounds (about $39-$49) on average.
The code Names help determine the approximate origin of some militants and understand if someone, for example, comes from Syria or is a foreign mercenary.
According to the Syrian military, leaders of terrorist organizations have long replaced real names with code names, thereby cutting off newcomers' ties with their pasts.
The Syrian government forces fighting against terrorists believe that such documents once again confirm that terrorist leaders use people for their financial benefit under the guise of heavily distorted religious values.
Another set of documents illustrated the twisted "justice" system that people living under the rule of radical militants were forced to endure.
Meticulously kept legal records show a peculiar interpretation of Islamic law - known as Sharia - which justified local self-proclaimed judiciary to jail people on accusations of flirtation, quarreling and other minor transgressions.
One record detailed a directive to release a man from jail dated for August 2, 2015 � during the heyday of the Islamic State terror group (IS, banned in Russia). The man, born in 1975, was accused for the crime of "flirting via Whatsapp."
The document haul also included a handwritten letter under the heading "Request for Mercy," and appeared to have been penned by a former inmate who spent six months behind bars and suffered 50 cane strikes.
The letter pleaded to return his confiscated belonging, including a laptop which he explained as necessary for his livelihood, repairing mobile phones.
Details of judicial procedures or law enforcement, to whatever degree that may have been practiced by the terrorist overlords, remain unknown as no such records were found.
Before the war, Aleppo was Syria's largest city, a bustling mercantile city which more than five million people called home. It fell under rebel control in 2012 and had changed hands several times since, each rebel group more radical and destructive than the last.
Although the central government had regained control over much of Aleppo by 2017, the plentiful outskirts of the city to the north and west remained stubbornly in rebel control.
Local Aleppines had to endure haphazard mortar shelling and hidden explosives which killed and maimed scores in the years since.
With the push to regain control of the last rebel strongholds starting late last year, Damascus' Syrian Arab Army was able to sweep the remaining groups out of the regions surrounding Aleppo.
The military advances means the government has regained control over the key Aleppo International Airport. The push westward into the Idlib province has given the government control over the entirety of M5 highway linking Damascus to Aleppo.
The airport received its first flight in eight years last week, a Syrian Air jet carrying 120 people from Damascus. It is set to resume international flight in the near future.
