Days after the Islamic Council’s statement about returning the dues of the residents of Afrin…fighting erupts between a faction in the “Olive Branch” against the military police due to a house of a Kurdish citizen

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitored the return of fighting to Afrin city, which is located in the north-western countryside of Aleppo, due to the stolen things and property seized in the city, as a result of the ongoing looting and thefts by the factions of the Operation “Olive Branch”, and in the details obtained by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights; clashes took place between fighters of Ahrar al-Sharqiyyah faction against members of the military police in the vicinity of al-Sariyah Building, inside Afrin city, and intersected sources confirmed to the Syrian Observatory that the fighting erupted as the military police tried to get back a house, in which a Kurdish citizen of the residents of the city has filed a complaint about seizing it by Ahrar al-Sharqiyyah, and while the attempt of getting the house back, the fighters of Ahrar al-Sharqiyyah refused to hand over the house, which resulted in the break out of clashes between the both parties, which resulted in the injury of a member of the military police, and the clashes continued until the a force of the Turkish forces came and settled the fighting.

This fighting comes few days after a statement issued by the Syrian Islamic Council about the “seizure of property in the area of Olive Branch Operation”, and the statement says:

“The property of the safe population should not be interfered with under any condition, and the property of the separatism militia falls under public funds, explaining by that not to interfere to the private and public funds in the areas which were under the control of the Kurdish Forces, and they may not be removed from their people, whether they are real estate, land, or agricultural products without a “Sharia reason,” because they belong to the people of the area, also the property of family members of the Kurdish Forces are left untouched or confiscated, with forbidding the removal of people from their homes or confiscating their crops and land, and when it is proven in court that the land was seized in the above-mentioned cases then it is returned to their owner, and if the owner is not known it is kept at the disposal of the local administrations, and its income is spend on the public interest and especially the families of martyrs, displaced, and needy people, while the premises, assets, and property of the Kurdish Forces -which were not previously taken from citizens- become for the public interest under the supervision of the local administration, and every fighter or faction must return all the money they have taken, land, or crop without permission or acceptance of the landowners or have not been paid must be returned to their owners, and the Islamic Council has recommended to local administrations to count and document the property and real estate in those areas, along with immediate investigating and return of any violation in the property of the safe population, where the injustice is forbidden in anyone’s right, and Allah almighty knows better.

While the Syrian Observatory published few hours ago, that 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 locals confirmed in the past few days to the SIHR that 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 also 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 also published 4 days ago, that Afrin is still witnessing violations, where neither the cries of the sufferers nor the decisions of those controlling it stopped 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.