On Wednesday, the civilians of Mhardeh came under attack – once again – by a contingent of armed Islamist combatants from the Syrian Al-Qaeda group “Jabhat Al-Nusra” and their allies from the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and Liwaa Suqour Al-Sham (Falcons of the Levant Brigade) at this Christian town located in the northern part of the Hama Governorate.
However, the Islamist groups attacking Mhardeh ran into a brick wall of resistance from the civilian militias in this town, as members of the National Defense Forces (NDF – all residents from Mhardeh) – repelled the militant assault at the Thermal Plant and the checkpoints at the northwestern outskirts of the town on Wednesday afternoon.
According to a military source from the town, the civilian-led NDF contingent pushed out all of the enemy combatants from the vicinity of Mhardeh, resulting in the death of 21 militants from Jabhat Al-Nusra and their allied groups, including the following: Yousif Thabit Nouress, Ghassan Wassim Al-Barakat, Mohammad Samir Al-Basha, Mohammad Radwan Abu Hilal, Jasseem Hussein Mohsen, and Qusay Khaled Al-Faraj.
Civilians from Mhardeh have formed a number of neighborhood watch groups to prevent any militants from infiltrating into their town; these groups were formed in 2012, when the town’s residents refused to support the FSA and other militant forces operating inside of Syria.
