The flashpoint northern Syrian town of Jisr al-Shughur showed few signs of normal life yesterday with soldiers barricaded between sandbags and military patrols dominating the landscape.
Only a handful of residents were present three days after the end of military operations that sent thousands fleeing across the border to Turkey in what officials described as a “purge” of armed gangs terrorising the town.
It was here that the army on June 4 opened fire to disperse an anti-regime rally sparking clashes that killed 25 people – including six troops – in just as many hours, an activist at the scene said at the time.
Some residents trickled back yesterdeay from neighbouring villages where they hid as military forces combed the mountains and woods in a scorched earth campaign after Syrian official media said “armed gangs” killed 120 policemen.
Syrian activists and refugees from the town who found shelter in Turkey have denied armed groups were ever present, claiming that defecting policemen were massacred by their own kind, providing harrowing accounts of deadly violence.
Armed elements or not, the military seized control of the town on Sunday and remains there in force. Only a few shops were open and pedestrians were a rare sight on the streets.
Syrian authorities took journalists, including an AFP reporter, on a tightly-controlled and well-choreographed tour of the town.
Officials unveiled a “new mass grave,” containing at least five corpses wrapped in orange and yellow bags, which state media described as the bodies of security forces killed “by armed terrorist groups in the town.”
Members of the press were then introduced to a man who identified himself as a “gunman who participated in a massacre at police headquarters” and said the victims were killed by “armed men” on June 6.
Residents in the town parroted the official version of events saying “armed groups” were present before the army came to purge the area.
“All these events aim to destroy Syrian society. These lawless bandits are manipulated by foreign powers and seek to hurt our country,” the elderly Omar Kalash said.
Hajj Abdu, 35, who has just returned from a neighbouring village where he was sheltered by his parents, said: “This is the first more or less normal day in the town.”
Only food stores were open.
The traces of fire were still visible on the walls of municipal buildings, including the courthouse and police headquarters, evidence of the presence of “armed groups,” remaining residents said.
Soldiers stood guard at key junctions while others patrolled the area raising a Syrian flag to the wind.
Two family cars stuffed with personal belongings chugged into the town.
Ahmad Haj Ibrahim returned home with his wife and family.
“Thank be to God and the army for returning to this town,” he said.
“I feel safe in the presence of (President) Bashar al-Assad and the army,” he continued, saying he had fled from armed groups.
“Armed groups set fire to my shop because we refused to take part in (anti-government) dem-onstrations,” said Mohammed al-Amin al-Najjari, 42, taking stock of his destroyed property.
He said he returned in response to a government call.
And by way of reminder that here the government generally has the final say, the shutters of his business had scribbled on them the declarations: “We love al-Assad” and “the lion cubs of Assad brave death.”
In 2000, Mr Assad succeeded his father Hafez, who ruled Syria with an iron-fist for three decades up to his death and whose forces killed 10,000 people crushing an uprising in 1982.