The current feud between civil activists and the security committee, comprised of armed combatants and Jabhat Al Nusra fighters, in the city of Saraqeb in the northern Idleb province of Syria, has made it very difficult for foreign journalists to enter and stay in the area, according to citizen journalists and civil activists in the city.

“The conflict is largely due to a misunderstanding. A group of Syrian and foreign journalists and activists was preparing a documentary film on the revolution and distributing leaflets on human rights to members of the Free Syrian Army and the armed opposition that included Quranic verses and Gospel quotes calling for the respect of human rights and explaining the ethics of war,” a Saraqeb activist said in an interview with the SKeyes Center.

“The armed groups and Jabhat Al-Nusra had formed a security committee of about a dozen fighters headed by a Saudi ‘mujahid.’ The committee stormed the civil activists’ headquarters but they were not there. The fighters headed then to the ‘cultural center,’ a sort of cultural coffee house where activists usually gather, and quarreled with the people present there. The committee head asked the female journalists to leave the city after calling them prostitutes,” he added.

The incident triggered a wave of protests against the Free Syrian Army and Jabhat Al-Nusra. On January 25, 2013, protesters carried signs condemning both religious extremism and the military regime. Activists said the presence of foreign journalists is not advisable until the misunderstanding is settled.