The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights

Erdogan’s “safe zone” | Ankara-backed factions continue to arrest and kidnap civilians in “Euphrates Shield” and “Olive Branch” areas

On Wednesday, Al-Fath Brigade patrol kidnapped the village’s elder of Tel Hussein in the countryside of Azaz, north of Aleppo, to exert pressure on him to withdraw a complaint he filed against a leader of the faction.

The village elder filed a lawsuit against a commander of Al-Fath faction as the commander had seized agricultural land estimated at nearly 130 hectares. and registered these lands by forging the documents, assuming that he is the owner of the lands. The land is known as “Security land.”

According to the Syrian Observatory, the elder of Tel Hussein village sued a leader of “Al-Fath faction as the leader seized land, forged identity papers and title deeds and forced the heirs of land to pay 400,000 USD for 11 years to allow them to harvest their crops.

The elder of the village refused to drop the lawsuit, so the faction kidnapped him and took him to an unknown destination until the elder withdrew the case.

Moreover, on Wednesday, unidentified gunmen on a “Santa Fe” military vehicle kidnapped a young man from Al-Bab city in front of his house near Osama bin Zaid mosque and took him to an unknown destination. The young man’s fate remains unknown.

In the same context, SOHR activists have reported that a joint patrol of Turkish Military Police and Intelligence raided the house of a resident from Al-Ashrafiyah in Afrin, arresting him for “dealing with Autonomous-administration on June 16.”

On June 7, a Turkish intelligence patrol, accompanied by members of military police, arrested two civilians, a person from Karmouk village and the other from Shourbah village in Maabatli district for “going on guard shifts during Autonomous-Administration control over Afrin.”