The factions of the “Olive Branch” continue their arrests against citizens in Afrin and villages in its countryside and the Kurdish Units carry out more attacks on the contact lines with the factions

Aleppo Province – The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights: Afrin still witnesses continued violations almost daily, against the citizens and residents who refused to leave the area and to displace towards the northern countryside of Aleppo or other Syrian areas, where the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitored factions operating within Operation “Olive Branch”, carrying out arrests which targeted more than 25 persons, of the residents of Burj Haidar village, and other villages adjacent to the Kurdish forces’ areas of presence, in the wake of clashes took place between gunmen believed to be of the Kurdish Units against the fighters of the Turkish-backed rebel and Islamic factions, on the contact areas between the both parties in Afrin countryside and the north of Aleppo, accompanied by exchange of targeting which claimed the lives of 3 fighters at least of the factions and injured others with varying severity, amid the citizens’ fears of more arrests against the backdrop of these attacks, and residents complained that members of the factions are trafficking in the arrests and exploit such conditions to collect royalties and ransoms through arresting more people.

 The Syrian Observatory also monitored that cells of the YPG carried out targeting operations against members and fighters in Afrin countryside, where they were assassinated and killed, raising at least 112, the number of attacks which 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.

And the SOHR published days ago, that what increased this resentment is the information which was received about the fact that the Turkish forces and the factions operating within the Operation “Olive Branch”, started to change the names of villages in Afrin countryside from Kurdish names into Turkish names, within a “Turkification” which ignited the resentment of the people of these villages and the residents and displaced people of Afrin area, where after displacing hundreds of thousands of the residents, looting their houses and possessions and seizing houses, farm, vehicles, shops and agricultural lands, an organized “Turkification” started silently by the Turkish forces amid silence of the Syrian opposition factions operating in Aleppo province, while this process is coincided with the continued arrests against citizens in order to collect ransom from their relatives, where the residents complained about the continuation of factions operating in Afrin to carry out such violations.

The SOHR has published that “Olive Branch” Operation Forces continue without being stopped to carry out their violations, and no military, “Sharia,” or political party is stopping them in Afrin area. The violations take the form of looting citizens’ money, seizing their property, looting and seizing their homes, collecting royalties from farm owners and commercial property owners, and from people travelling between cities, towns, and villages of Afrin area, as well as arresting citizens in Afrin city on a daily basis, through which the factions are trying to secure funds paid as ransom in exchange for the release of the detainees, where the reliable sources confirmed to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights that during the last week the “Olive Branch” has arrested tens of civilians and detained them in their detentions, then they contacted their relatives in order to pay ransom for them to be released, where they arrest them after fabricating charges of collaborating with and belonging to the Kurdish Forces and other charges, through which “Olive Branch” operation forces seek to intimidate the people and force them to pay money, royalties and ransom to members of these factions.