Organized assassinations are surging in the city of al-Bab in the northeastern countryside of Aleppo, targeting civilians, military, media personnel and members of the police and security forces. The city has witnessed several bombings via booby-trapped cars and motorcycles and improvised explosive devices in recent months.

Al-Bab is controlled by Syrian National Army-branded factions operating under the leadership of the Free Syrian Army (FSA). The FSA, backed by the Turkish army, seized al-Bab from the Islamic State in February 2017.

In recent days, the assassinations of civilians and members of the FSA-affiliated military police surged. On April 15, unidentified assailants killed 1st Lt. Khaled al-Khatib, a member of the military police. He was shot by masked gunmen riding a motorbike as he was traveling from his place of residence in the city of Marea to his workplace at the police station in al-Bab.

Meanwhile, the Syrian Civil Defense, known as the White Helmets, said April 15 that it recovered the body of an unknown man who had been shot on the road to the village of Wakah, west of al-Bab. On the same day, unknown gunmen on a motorbike killed a civilian named Majed Youssef al-Rajab in the center of al-Bab.