Thread by @GregoryPWaters

Yesterday two Alawite brothers were murdered in an armed robbery of their house in #Latakia. The intruders claimed they were part of HTS. Local leaders called on HTS to take revenge & create joint committee.

HTS visited village w/ Alawite sheikh same day & promised swift action

Request for joint security committees of HTS & local men across Alawite communities is a good step, and local pages seem optimistic that this may be introduced soon. Local pages also deny rumors that civilians have fled their homes out fear

Murdered brothers Muhamad & Ahmed Taha

On December 16 three brothers went to the Homs City reconciliation center. Men claiming to be from HTS stopped them on the way, taking the two ex-officers in their car. Their bodies found next day in Wa'er. Story is widely spread by ex-army as evidence they should not reconcile

Large weapons cache found in Masyaf countryside earlier today.

Nubl police force (shia town in #Aleppo) re-activated on Dec 19. One of the first signs minority dynamics had massively shifted was when +1,000 residents of the town negotiated with HTS to return to Nubl/Zahara rather than move to still-regime held areas on Dec 2

Reports of clashes tonight in Ransiyeh village #Tartous, on the Lebanon border, with locals killing 1-3 men. Different stories, some say thieves impersonating opposition factions while others say it was a raid ambushed by criminals in the village. 1st such incident in Tartous.

The Martyrs of Talkalakh Battalion - which was assigned initial security control of Talkalakh - claims it was their own unit that was responding to a (fake) report of clashes in Ransiyeh that was then ambushed

Battalion demanded HTS sent security to deal w/ armed regime elements

General Security convoys arrived in Talkalakh today to "take control of security in the cs"
"Some warnings sent to villages to surrender their weapons peacefully...Some mukhtars were also summoned and some instructions were given to them to maintain security and safety"