BEIRUT – The Islamist Army of Conquest coalition, which controls Syria’s Idlib province, executed on Friday five members of a “security cell” who belonged to ISIS and the hardline Jund al-Aqsa, around two weeks after reports on the cell’s capture emerged.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported early on Friday morning that the five men had been executed on the same day in Idlib by the Army of Conquest’s policing body, the Executive Force.

Activists close to the coalition told the Britain-based monitoring NGO that the men had been charged with “cooperating with ISIS, carrying out several assassinations including [the assassination of] leaders in Islamist factions, targeting vehicles belonging to the Ahrar al-Sham Islamic Movement with IEDs and detonating IEDs at various locations in Idlib province.”

“The execution order was issued by the Army of Conquest’s Shura Council and approved by the Supreme Judiciary,” the activist sources added.

Jund al-Aqsa, an extremist Islamist group formed as an Al-Qaeda subsidiary, officially separated from the Army of Conquest in late October 2015.

In turn, an anti-regime news site, which was among the first media outlets to cover the cell’s capture in late December, published its own report on the executions, citing sources close to the Army of Conquest.

El-Dorar, which has a pro-Islamist editorial stance, reported that the Army of Conquest had “carried out the rule of retribution to a cell working for ‘IS’ group involved in the assassination operations against the leaders of the revolutionary elements in the province of Idlib.”

“Our correspondent confirmed that the four elements of the cell… were shot in the public square of Idlib city in front of a gathering of people.”

The report also cited a source in the Army of Conquest’s security committee as saying that the coalition had obtained “confessions stating the existence of more cells that cooperate with the ‘IS’ militants, which the committee is about to reveal.”

Although the SOHR did not mention the existence of other cells, it did say it had “received information from activists in [Idlib province’s] Ariha that unidentified persons have kidnapped Jund al-Aqsa’s security office official in the town and led him away to an unknown location.”

In a further report, local outlet Idlib Online published an “explanatory statement” from the Army of Conquest that went it to detail on the capture of the five men and their interrogation.

“The Executive Force in the Army of Conquest captured, 20 days ago, a security cell made up of three people [armed with] silenced [automatic weapons] while they were attempting to plant an IED on Idlib’s National Hospital Street,” the statement read.

“After preliminary interrogation two other people who belonged to the same cell were arrested.”

The statement added that after a second period of interrogation the detainees had admitted to six separate counts of “bombing rebel vehicles and bases in Idlib and the surrounding countryside.”



While Idlib Online’s report, which gave the full names and aliases of the detainees, said that one of the executed men was an ISIS member and the other four were former members of Jund al-Aqsa, Eldorar and SOHR gave slightly different accounts.

According to SOHR, the men were “3 former fighters from Jund al-Aqsa and two former members of ISIS.”

For its part El-Dorar, reported that four and not five men had been executed.

Since the end of October, the SOHR has reported four separate assassination attempts inside the Idlib province.

On December 14, the commander of an Islamist brigade survived a blast from an IED that had been attached to the bottom of his car in the town of Jarjanaz.

Twelve days earlier, an Al-Nusra Front sharia official was killed after unknown persons detonated an IED attached to his car on the Kefraya road.

On November 3, the commander of an Islamist brigade was killed when an IED in his car was detonated near the village of Saraqeb.

Less than a week before, an Islamist commander survived an assassination attempt in the town of Harem, which was reported separately as both a suicide bombing and an IED attack.