Afrin violations | National Army factions continue felling olive trees and selling houses of displaced civilians

Aleppo province: As the factions of the Turkish-backed “National Army” continue felling trees in Afrin city in the northern countryside of Aleppo in full view of Turkish forces, SOHR sources have confirmed that Al-Sham Corps have felled over 300 olive trees belonging to a displaced civilian from Kabashin village in Shirawa district.

 

On the other hand, Liwaa Al-Samarqand which controls several villages in Jendires district has felled nearly 330 civilians from the district in order to sell them as fire logs. The faction also felled over 190 trees in Ramadana village in Sheikh Hadeed district, where these trees belonged to civilians from the village.

 

Moreover, members of “Al-Jabha Al-Shamiyyah”sold a house in Al-Ashrafiyyah neighbourhood in Afrin city for 1,500 USD to a displaced man from Idlib.

 

On December 14, SOHR sources reported that Turkish-backed factions continued repressing the remaining residents of Afrin with the aim to force them to leave the canton as a part of the systematic demographic change by the “National Army”.

 

In this context, militiamen of Al-Hamza Division committed an armed robbery on the house of an elderly man in Jubana village in Raju district, where they stole jewelry and kicked the man’s daughter causing cuts and bruises all over her body.

 

While on December 13, an elderly woman had a broken leg after a militiaman of Al-Hamza Division pelt her with a grand stone in Talaf village in Afrin countryside. According to SOHR sources, the militiaman fell out of his motorcycle and sustained several cuts when he attempted to avoid a dog, as he was riding at a high speed. The militiaman insulted the dog’s owner, the old woman, and pelted her with a stone, breaking her leg. The woman was taken to a hospital in Afrin, but she could not file a complaint against the militiaman for fear of being killed.

 

Similarly, a member of Al-Sham Corps brutally beat a civilian known by his initials as H. S. from Sheikh Mohamedly village in Raju district, claiming that the civilian assaulted Turkish forces and their proxy factions on December 12. This incident came after the civilian who owned a shop asked a militiaman of Al-Sham Corps who was from Homs to pay his debt, but the militiaman beat the civilian. When the civilian headed to Al-Sham Corps headquarters and filed a complaint against the militiaman, the Corps members beat the civilian again and arrested him.