The regime forces arrested a number of merchants in the city of Aleppo, northern Syria, for participating in strikes and closing shops in the city, during the last few days.

A special source told Qasioun that the regime's intelligence had arrested a large number of merchants in Aleppo city, who had closed their shops and factories, and began selling their properties with the intention to leave the country.

The sources added that the arresting campaign affected the traders of yarn, textile and plastic factories, and sums of money that were inside their homes were confiscated, in addition to the confiscation of passports that some traders had extracted for their family members, as they intended to go to Egypt.

Qasioun obtained the names of some of the merchants who were arrested, including the thread trader Mahmoud Demalkhi, the detergent manufacturer Abdul Karim Alabi, and the shoemaker Faris Turkmani. The list of arrests reached more than twenty merchants.

It is noteworthy that the city of Aleppo witnessed, during the past week, partial strikes in some of its markets, in protest against the living reality and the crises afflicting the country, and against the regime’s measures against hundreds of traders and industrialists.