Palmyra/Deir ez-Zor – Multiple security incidents unfolded across central and eastern Syria on Saturday, ranging from raids and arrests to an ISIS-linked assault and the discovery of a mass grave, underscoring the country’s persistent instability.
Local sources told +963 that Syrian government security units raided the home of former National Defense Forces commander Hussein Abu Jafar in the Yarmouk neighbourhood of Palmyra, central Syria.
According to security officials, Abu Jafar resisted arrest with automatic weapons, triggering an exchange of fire that lasted several minutes. Forces eventually subdued him and took him into custody. Abu Jafar, who had been in hiding since the fall of the former Syrian regime, is accused of coordinating operations with Iranian-backed factions.
In a separate incident, armed men believed to be ISIS fighters attacked the home of Abdul Hamid al-Nazzal, a local oil well investor in the town of al-Hawayej in eastern Deir ez-Zor province.
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Security sources said the attackers used rifles and hand grenades, sparking heavy clashes that left al-Nazzal lightly injured. The assailants managed to flee the scene. A source close to al-Nazzal noted this was the second attack on him this year, after repeated refusals to pay what ISIS calls “zakat” or compulsory levy.
Meanwhile, residents of the village of al-Tab, located between Palmyra and Deir ez-Zor, discovered a mass grave containing six decomposed bodies.
Sources reported that the dead were wearing the uniforms of the former Syrian regime’s forces but carried no identification documents. The site was found near an abandoned government building. Villagers later reburied the remains in the local cemetery. The circumstances and timing of the deaths remain unclear.
The incidents come as Syria continues to grapple with overlapping conflicts, persistent ISIS activity, and fragile security structures more than a year after the fall of the previous government.
