Surge in kidnapping incidents in Latakia: $1 million ransom

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a 25-year-old woman and mother of two, originally from the village of Qarjala in the Ayn al-Bayda subdistrict of rural Latakia, went missing last Thursday after she was last seen at a falafel restaurant near the Dar al-Ma‘rifa Institute in the city. 

Her family has appealed to authorities and the public for assistance in locating her, as the circumstances of her disappearance remain unknown.

In a separate case, a 38-year-old employee of the Water Company disappeared on October 27 after leaving his village, al-Musalla, in the al-Mazira‘a area of rural Latakia, reportedly heading to meet a friend in the Spiro neighborhood.

His family’s search efforts in hospitals and police stations yielded no results, before they received information suggesting that he was being held by a security agency that has yet to disclose his whereabouts or the reasons for his detention.

The third incident involved a 70-year-old man named Salah Aslan, a nephew of former regime general Ali Aslan, who was abducted from in front of his home in the Awqaf Project area of Latakia city. According to the Observatory, he was later released after his family paid a ransom estimated at around one million U.S. dollars.

The recent wave of abductions has sparked public anxiety amid official silence, raising questions about those responsible and the motives behind these incidents.

a.k

ANHA