The confessions of terrorists: We detonated cars in Damascus and its countryside for money
The Syrian security forces arrested a number of terrorists who confessed that they carrying out terrorist explosions with explosive devices that targeted cars in Damascus and its countryside for money from their operators who were implementing the plans of the enemies of Syria and its people.
In confessions broadcast by the Syrian Television on April 11, the terrorist, Issa Iyad Abbas, said ” I was staying in the town of Kanaker, southwest of Damascus, and working in the Al-Mujtahid Hospital.”
The terrorist Abbas said that a person named Abu Ashour communicated with him over the Internet. Abu Ashour was working in the engineering department of the so-called “Brigade of the Furqan” , led by the terrorist Muhammad Majid al-Khatib who is in Jordan and met with Israeli officers.
Abbas said that after Abu Ashour came to Kanaker and gave him money to carry out detonating explosive devices. “I was able to pass through the Syrian army checkpoints due to my young age.”
The terrorist Abbas continued: One time, I went to Abu Ashour’s house in Kanaker and told him that there was a barrier and a rest room for the soldiers, and that I could place an explosive device without anyone seeing me, so he gave me a package weighing four kilograms of C4 and taught me how to detonate it.
The terrorist Abbas said that I have a friend working with me in the suburb of Yousef al-Azma, in Jdeidet Artouz, where I lived, called Mahmoud Mohamed Al-Khatib, I had to tell him about the matter because I cannot do this work alone and I offered him half of the amount that I would get from this work, so he agreed, this was done without telling Abu Ashour My friend would work with me.
He added that “on the second day, I placed the explosive device between my things in a shoulder bag and took it to the building in which we work in the suburb of Yousef al-Azma. After finishing our work at six in the evening we went to the checkpoint and put the explosive device and turned it on and went to my friend who was waiting for me and turned on the detonation device and the camera from the mobile I filmed .We actually heard the sound of the explosion, but we did not see anything because of the darkness, so we threw the device and went back.”
Abbas continued ,”after leaving our work in Jdeidet Artouz, we found a new job in Al-Mujtahid Hospital, where we worked in the kitchen department, and we stayed in this work for four months. Abu Ashour contacted me and asked me to find another target, so I went at night to his home in Kanaker so he gave me a small explosive device and asked me to plant it with any army target ,so I carried the explosive device and returned it to Damascus in the same first way of crossing the checkpoints on foot until I arrived at Al-Mujtahid Hospital and stayed there until evening.”
The terrorist Abbas said that on the same evening, I went out with the package from the Hospital and went to the Mazzeh Highway with my friend Mahmoud, where we saw Hummer cars parked there. I photographed the cars and sent the photo to Abu Ashour who asked me to place the package, get away from it, photograph the explosion, which he did .
The terrorist Abbas added that after photographing the bombing, I sent the video clip to Abu Ashour so he asked me to withdraw from the place immediately and return to my work in the hospital. Indeed, this was what happened and after a month of the incident I went to Abu Ashour’s house and gave me an amount of 40 thousand Syrian pounds that I shared with my friend Mahmoud.
The terrorist Abbas said that Abu Ashour contacted me after a while and asked me to come to his house and I actually went to his house, where he showed me a picture of a bridge between the Al-Danaji and Deir Maker areas. He told me that under this bridge was an explosive device placed in a nylon bag and he asked me to bring it to him and showed me the way so I went to there by a motorcycle he gave it to me and actually when I arrived I found the package and I took it and delivered it to him. He explained to me the way it works because it was different from the previous one as it explodes after its operation due to the concussion and tremors, while the car is running.
Abbas added that after we stopped for a period of time while Abu Ashour had finished making new packages and the period lasted for “about six months”. He called me and asked me to find a new target after giving me a new package that I went to Al-Sayeda Zainab garage in Damascus after I spotted a military figure driving a Toyota -model pickup. I sent it to Abu Ashour. In the evening, I put it under the pickup and went home.
The terrorist Abbas added: on the second day, Abu Ashour told me that the package did not explode, and this type cannot be mistaken and that the reason why it did not explode is a mistake I made, so he sent me on the third day to see if it was still under the car, and if the malfunction was from the batteries, I went back to Al-Sayeda Zainab garage and found the pickupwas where the driver was parking it and the package is still there, so I informed him of its existence and he asked me to change the batteries or put another package so I went back to the house and brought a new package but I did not find the car and I called Abu Ashour and told him and he said to me, “find any goal to place the package that you have under it’. So, I went with it to Baramkeh area, Damascus downtown, near the Department of Immigration and Passports. I found a police car and a police bus. Abu Ashour agreed that I put the package under the police bus. I went back to the house, but the package also did not explode.
The terrorist Abbas added that after two days of the Baramkeh incident, I was walking near the Victoria Bridge, and I saw an army pickup which I photographed and sent to Abu Ashour who agreed. So, I went back to the house and brought a package and put it under the pickup, but it did not explode, which raised Abu Ashour’s doubts. So, he asked me to visit him at his house where I met him and another man named Hamza. Abu Ashour asked Hamza to accompany me during the implementation, and he gave us another package. On the second day, I went with Hamza to the city, but we did not find a target. On the third day, in the Al-Fahamah district, near Baramkeh, we saw gunmen of the police and army, so we took secondary roads where there was a car park to for the National Defense Forces, which includes a Toyota Jeep. I photographed it and sent it to Abu Ashour and put the package before he answered me, then we left the place.
The terrorist Abbas added: “After two days, Abu Ashour asked us to go to the market to bring a cage for the rabbits to him and monitor targets in the Mazzeh area so we went and we did not carry packages and there we spotted an army vehicle and I photographed it and sent it to Abu Ashour. We returned to the house so he told me that if you found the car had moved in thnext day so put the package under it, but if it was in the same place, then change the target. I found that it had changed. So, I put the package under it and I knew it was exploded. Abu Ashour gave us another package that we went towards in the direction of Daraa Garage near a bridge Al-Zahira where we witnesse three soldiers were leaving of a car carrying the Aleppo plate, so the package was planted in it. After the soldiers returned to the car, they went to the Al-Midan area, where the car exploded there.”
Abbas said that after a short period of time, we spotted an army officer standing next to a Peugeot car in the Qatana area, so we photographed the car and sent it to Abu Ashour, so he asked us to plant the package after knowing when he got out and entered it, and indeed we planted it and I went back to Damascus, while Hamza went to Kanaker and an hour later I heard it did not explode.
The terrorist Abbas added that after the Qatna operation, Abu Ashour asked me to leave Hamza and train another person named Hossam, and it was our first operation in the Electricity Market area in Marjah, where we spotted a pickup, so I and Hussam bought batteries and went to the Hamidiya market where I prepared the package in front of Hossam. We went back to Marjah where I planted the package under pickup. We went back to Kanaker and I read , from Facebook pages, that the car had exploded.
The terrorist Abbas said: On the second day, we went to the Artouz area and had two explosive devices in our possession, and after we got there I gave the packages to Hossam and asked him to wait for me until I came back from Qatna and then we went to Damascus and Hossam stayed waiting for me for three hours until I finished the institute. Hossam had detected a target in Sham University Street in the Al-Baramkeh area, which is an army vehicle, so I went to him after he contacted me and told me about it, and this time Hossam planted the explosive device in the car and we moved away from it and photographed the explosion after I wrote on my hand the words ‘Al-Furqan’.
The terrorist Abbas added that one time, after we got an explosive device to plant it in one of the cars, we were surprised that there were no magnetic stickers, so we contacted Abu Ashour, who asked us to put it in any pickup vehicle so that we put it in the back box so that we would not go back and we actually went towards the “Four Seasons Hotel” Where we also found a Toyota pickup, in which a soldier. I placed the package in in the pickup.
The terrorist Abbas said that Abu Ashour insisted again on knowing the fate of the package that was placed in the car of the officer in the Qatana area and asked us to put a new package in the same car. We actually went back to Qatana and planted the package by car. I went back to Damascus, while Hussam went to his house and after two hours he told me that the package exploded.
In turn, the terrorist Mahmoud Muhammad al-Khatib, 18-year-old, said: I worked in the profession of sewing, in a biscuit factory, in the mujtahid hospital, and in carpentry. I got to know Issa through my friends, and at one time I asked him to borrow money, so he told me there is someone who gives us money in exchange for work with him by placing explosive devices and I agreed. During our work in the suburb of Yusef Al-Azmeh , Issa told me that he would go to Kanaker in order to know the details and he actually came back with the package and we kept it at home until the evening and then we went to the checkpoint where I walked in front of it and put it in front of the soldiers room about 15 meters and I photographed. Few days late, he told me that we will do another attack on Mezze Highway near the place of cars Hummers.
For his part, the terrorist Hamza Ahmed Al-Masry, born in Knaker in 2000, who works as freelancers, said: I got to know Hammouda Abu Ashour who was one of the gunmen in Kanaker in one of the streets of the town. He called me to stay with him at home. There he offered me money in exchange for learning to plant the packages, then he called Issa and asked me to accompany him and learn from him.
Al-Masry terrorist added: During our tour in Al-Baramkeh, we saw cars for the National Defense Forces, so we put the package in one of them, and after that we went to Mezze district and had two packages with us, where we put one behind the Al-Galaa Sports Stadium and the second we put it in the Saba’a Bahrat ( Seven Lakes) when Issa was putting the package and I monitor. We went to the Al-Zahira Bridge was where we saw three soldiers in a car carrying the Aleppo plate. When they got off to the field, we placed the package under the car.
Al-Masry terrorist continued: When I went to Qatna to obtain a postponement of school, I saw an officer with the rank of colonel standing next to the Peugeot car. After my return, Hammouda asked me if I saw something there, so I told him what I saw then he phoned Issa and asked him to go on the second day there and plant the package and it was this is my last operation, indicating that he was asked to learn to plant and work in place of Issa, who said that they had given him dates to travel outside Syria in exchange for his work with them.
In turn, the terrorist Hossam Al-Hallaq, from the town of Kanaker, 23 year-old, said that my knowledge of Hammouda, known as Abu Ashour, was from the days of the “Al-Furqan Brigade”.
He added: Often Abu Ashour was communicating with us on the net via a group on “Telegram and WhatsApp” and we were meeting inside the house and asked us to come out masked at night and raise banners with slogans against Iran and photograph this scene as a video clip and our number ranged between 10 and 15 people. The second work was writing on the walls of the town and these works were rewarded, where every person who went out to photograph got 10 thousand liras, while the fee for graffiti was between 10 and 15 thousand according to who accomplished more in writing because the work was not at one time but continued for about two weeks and all of these works were done for the media.
The terrorist Al-Hallaq continued: “Abu Ashour asked me to go with Issa Abbas to plant the bombs, as he took every operation between 20 and 25 thousand and I went out with him for the first time to Marjah. After the operation was carried out, I went back home and opened “Facebook” and saw on the pages a pickup explosion in Al-Marjah Square, and then I returned to Hamouda Abu Ashour and took 25,000 liras from him. Days later, we planted a package in a car carrying a military plate that was parked on the Sham University road in the Al-Baramkeh area”.
The terrorist Al-Hallaq explained that the packages are small pieces that have magnetic stickers placed on the bottom of the car, so we were surprised that this package does not have stickers, so we contacted Abu Ashour who told us to put it behind any car better than to get back in it and this is what happened and Hamouda Abu Ashour gave me about this proces 35 thousand liras.
He added: I was given a promise upon completion of the work to facilitate my travel to Germany or to secure a car with work for me.
In turn, the terrorist Ali Ahmed Al-Atrash, a blacksmith, a resident of Maadamiyet Al-Sham, born in 1998, said that in the beginning of March, Adnan Abu Thaer, known as “Abu Lahab”, who was a former member of the Al-Furqan Brigade and lived in the town of Kanaker.
On March 22, Abu Lahab phoned me and told me that the packages are on the road with a woman and that the password is “Hello my brother-in-law”. She actually handed me a black bag with two bags in a school bag for a child of her grandchildren and then put them in an abandoned apartment nearby in the town of Maadamiyet Al-Sham and on the same night I was arrested.
On her part, Fatima Bakash, born in Daraya 1974, said: I used to live in the town of Jasim in Daraa countryside after I left Daraya and I was baking to feed my children. One day I met with a woman from Kanaker called Umm Thaer and asked me to come to her home to bake for her at home and indeed I went and there I met with her husband, he offered me to work with him and asked him about the type of work, so he told me to transfer explosive devices, so I asked him about the financial compensation, and he said 25 thousand Syrian pounds, and I agreed, and then he brought a school bag and put two packages in a black bag and gave me a phone number for a young and he told me that the password is Hello my brother-in-law”. I gave the back to the young man and went away.
In the beginning of this year, the Damascus city and countryside witnessed a series of explosions with explosive devices targeting cars, leaving many wounded and a number of martyrs. But the security forces arrested those responsible for these explosions. The security forces continue to pursue their operators who supply them with explosive materials and money.
O. al-Mohammad / I. Abdulkareem