After more than 105 attacks against the factions since losing Afrin, sources in the Kurdish Forces to the Observatory: we deny our members’ responsibility for many executions

Aleppo Province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights: the “Olive Branch” operations continue their violations against civilians of Afrin city and in its countryside in the northwestern countryside of Aleppo, where the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitored the continuation of individual raids by factions or members of the “Olive Branch” Operation Forces who are led by the Turkish forces, in addition to collecting royalties from citizens through imposing sums of money on farmers and traders, as well as collecting funds from civilians when they raid their homes by robbing their money and jewelry if they found any, and stopping buses on the main and sub roads in Afrin area which lead from it to areas in Idlib and the western and northern countryside of Aleppo, and imposing royalties on passengers and preventing them from completing their way without paying money, also the money is being collected through imposing a ransom on people in exchange for releasing their children from their jails.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights in the recent days has monitored the assassinations of fighters and people working in local institutions in Afrin area, within areas controlled by “Olive Branch” Operation Forces, after the Syrian Observatory monitoring about 105 attacks targeted the forces controlling Afrin area, who continue to prevent civilians from returning from the northern countryside of Aleppo towards their towns, villages, and residences, while leading sources of the YPG denied that their forces or cells had relation or responsibility for many of the assassinations and acts of torture; some of which appeared on videos and attributed to the Kurdish Forces, and the sources accused other cells belong to other parties of carrying out these assassinations and attributing them to the Kurdish Forces for their own agenda, the main aim of which is to escalating their violations against the civilians, where the resentment has been increasing among the civilians day after day, with the unfair and unjust procedures, and the silence of the Turkish Forces -who are leading the “Olive Branch” operation- and not responding to their complaints.

The Syrian Observatory published a few days ago that it received a copy of statement issued by the “Fatwa authority of the Syrian Islamic Council”, entitled: “Fatwa of the residency in areas controlled by PYD militia,” in which Council sees the name of PYD as a deception and a curtain for forces controlled by PYD; the envious secular militias, it also sees that PYD became a tool to implement foreign agendas that do not serve the Syrian revolution or the Syrian people, and not even the interests of the Kurds, ad for that the Council sees the cooperation with these forces only in the circle of necessity and balances which are estimated by people of expertise, also the Council didn’t approve the establish a Kurdish body separated from the Syrian territory.

The Syrian Observatory also published 2 days ago that resentment is prevailing Afrin area against the continued violations by the factions and their members against the residents, where locals confirmed that members of the factions turn to fabricate accusations against some citizens and terrify them, in order to seize their possessions or collect royalties from them, and the Syrian Observatory documented in the past few hours, that a member of Jaysh al-Sharqiyyah faction, assaulted and beat a Kurdish elderly woman, in Mahmoudia neighborhood in Afrin city, as the woman refused to leave her house, after bringing charges against her that her sons belong to the Democratic Union Party and to the Kurdish forces, then a verbal dispute began between the member and the elderly woman, which ended with assaulting and beating the elderly woman by the member who belongs to a security force in Jaysh al-Sharqiyyah faction operating under the banner of the Operation “Olive Branch” led by the Turkish forces.

The Syrian Observatory published on the 12th of August 2018, that violations continue in Afrin area in the northwestern countryside of Hama, where intersected sources confirmed to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights that after the end of lootings by the Turkish-backed factions for the citizens property and the contents of inhabited and uninhabited houses, and confiscating and burning houses and farms, the factions operating in the Turkish forces-led “Olive Branch” operation began looting the public property, where the Syrian Observatory monitored during the past 48 hours gunmen of the Sultan Murad Division cutting off the copper electric cables, assembling, and stealing them from an area near al-Nowruz Roundabout in the middle of Afrin, where some people came out to question their identity and why they were there, but a member of the group said: “we are thieves, you better enter your home,” also another person asked them why are they cutting the copper electricity cables, another member answered in the same way: “we are fixing the electricity for you”, and the local sources confirmed that in conjunction with this robbery, a military police patrol passed through the area where the division of Sultan Murad are stealing the cables, which led a verbal altercation and very loud screams, but the Free Police were unable to stop the robbery and returned to its headquarters, after which the Turkish armored vehicles came to roam in the area, which pushed members of the group to flee but they came back to complete the stealing one the Turkish patrol left the area, the sources confirmed that this stealing lasted more than 3 hours without any force to prevent them from stealing.

The Syrian Observatory published 72 hours ago, that Afrin is still witnessing violations, where neither the cries of the sufferers nor the decisions of those controlling it stoped these violations, where the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitored that the factions operating within the Operation “Olive Branch” are continuing to carry out violations against the people of Afrin area, who refused to displace and stayed in their houses, villages and towns, and the local sources confirmed again that the factions are seeking through the arrests to trade in the detainees, through arresting residents on charge of various accusations, most of which are related to their relations with the Kurdish forces during the period of the latter’s control on Afrin, then the detainees are tortured and contact takes place with their relatives to pay sums of money in return for releasing them, while reliable sources confirmed to the Syrian Observatory that these violations targeted more residents, along with the continuation of the factions operating within the Operation “Olive Branch” to detain hundreds of Syrian citizens of the people of Afrin area in their detention centers, and to torture and insult them, also the Syrian Observatory monitored in a video -of which the Syrian Observatory received a copy- persons believed to be of a faction operating in Afrin area, beating a man from Afrin area and forcing him to direct a massage to his relatives to collect the money they have and pay it to the faction in return for setting him free, which provoked the locals’ resentment, and the non-response of the Turkish forces to the complains that were presented by the residents, escalated the pace of this resentment, where the residents have informed the Syrian Observatory that they presented a lot of complains to the Turkish forces but they ignored them.