The factions detain tens of citizens in Afrin and request large ransoms and threaten to kill some of them within their continued breaches in the area against its residents who remained in it

Aleppo Province – The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights: the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitored the sound of violent explosion at the entrance of Afrin city, where the Syrian Observatory monitored the explosion of an IED in a vehicle at the outskirts of the road to Afrin city from its northern entrance, which caused substantial damage to the vehicle, without information about casualties, while the SOHR monitored that the rebel and Islamic factions operating under the banner of Operation “Olive Branch”, are continuing their violations against the citizens of Afrin city and its countryside, where residents are periodically arrested, detained and threatened to be killed in the case that their relatives do not send a ransom that reaches millions of Syrian Pounds, where they are beaten, tortured and threatened, under the pretext of “complaints filed by locals against them”, these factions also direct accusations to the citizens and beat and assault them during the questionings which are carried out in their jails and detention centers, while it rose to about 40, the number of those who were arrested in the past 48 hours in Afrin city and its countryside, by several factions operating in the area, against the backdrop of the attacks which took place in the contact lines between the controlled areas of the Operation “Olive Branch” and between the areas where the Kurdish forces are deployed in the north-western countryside of Aleppo.

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, and 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.