AL-BAB, Syria — Mohammad Hariri is worried about news coming from the eastern Damascus suburbs that the regime recaptured in April 2018. On Feb. 28, security forces affiliated with the Syrian regime arrested three women in the town of Kafr Batna in eastern Ghouta on charges of conspiring against the regime, according to local news websites. Those arrested had contacted their relatives in opposition-controlled areas in northern Syria on the phone.

Such incidents have been on the rise lately in regime-held areas, making Hariri reluctant to communicate with his relatives in his hometown Douma, in eastern Ghouta.

Hariri currently lives in al-Bab in opposition-controlled Aleppo governorate. He left Douma along with thousands of civilians in 2018, as per an agreement that allowed residents to leave to opposition-controlled areas before the regime forces entered in April.

While showing us his cellphone call record, Hariri told Al-Monitor, “I am currently not in touch with my relatives in Douma. The last time I spoke to them was eight months ago. They think the regime is watching everything and that its security apparatus can read messages and listen in on calls. They are afraid of texting and calling me because it might raise security suspicions or lead to arrests.”