Forces affiliated with the interim authority in Syria, “Hayat Tahrir al-Sham,” on 21 December 2025 arrested two citizens from the Kurdish component, originating from the city of Qamishli (Qamishlo), at a security checkpoint in the eastern Palmyra desert, while they were returning from a hunting trip.
The two detainees are Hamid Salman Mahmoud and Sheikho Faisal Khalil, and they were working as tour guides within a hunting group.
According to the available information, the two young men were accompanying a hunting group that included citizens holding Kuwaiti and Jordanian nationalities. A checkpoint affiliated with the General Security stopped all members of the group to verify their identities. After the inspection was completed, the checkpoint personnel released the holders of foreign nationalities, while only the Kurdish citizens were arrested and taken away from the site.
The Kurdish citizens were transferred to the Palmyra police station, which is run by a person called “Abu Hajer,” along with a threat directed at the rest of the group of arrest should they attempt to ask about or follow up on the fate of the two young men.
These incidents reflect a recurring pattern of arbitrary arrests at checkpoints, particularly against citizens from the Kurdish component, amid the absence of any official information about places of detention or the charges directed against the detainees.
