The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights

Factional infighting in “safe zone” | Militiamen of Ahrar Al-Sham and Al-Jabha Al-Shamiyyah killed and injured in violent clashes in Al-Bab countryside, east of Aleppo

SOHR sources have reported that Al-Jabha Al-Shamiyyah faction has managed to control villages, which had the majority of Kurds, in Tel Batal and Abla in Al-Bab countryside, east of Aleppo, after fierce clashes with heavy and medium machineguns between splinter groups from Ahrar Al-Sham faction and Al-Jabha Al-Shamiyyah faction.

According to SOHR activists, Al-Jabha Al-Shamiyyah militiamen have cordoned off the villages of Ablah and Tel Batal on Saturday morning, and then stormed the headquarters of Ahrar Al-Sham faction.

After fierce clashes, Al-Jabha Al-Shamiyyah fighters managed to control most of the headquarters of Ahrar Al-Sham and arrested a number of Ahrar al-Sham militiamen. All the fighters of the two factions withdraw to the outskirts of the villages.

Ahrar Al-Sham faction has deployed their fighters in Al-Bab city, while Al-Jabha Al-Shamiyyah faction has brought in large military reinforcements of tanks and heavy guns with 57 shoots from Azaz city to Al-Bab.

The reasons for the clashes, which caused the death of a militiaman of Ahrar al-Sham and the injury of a number of other militiamen, remain unknown.

 

On June 12, SOHR activists reported that several members of the military police sustained various injuries in an attack by groups of displaced gunmen from Homs city on the headquarters of the military police in Al-Bab city in the eastern countryside of Aleppo. The attack came as a part of the response to the rape of a four-year-old girl by the brother of a commander in “Al-Jabha Al-Shamiyyah” known as “Abu Ghannoum.”

According to SOHR sources, displaced gunmen from Homs city brought in grand military reinforcement from different areas controlled by Turkish-backed factions to Al-Bab city, after the rape of a little displaced girl from Homs city by the brother of a commander in “Al-Jabha Al-Shamiyyah” in Al-Bab city. Meanwhile, the military police have called for urgent military reinforcement to their headquarters in order to break up the ongoing clashes.

In a statement, of which the Syrian Observatory obtained a copy, the residents of Homs called for the punishment of the criminal and demanded the leave of the criminal’s family from areas under the control of Turkish forces and their proxy factions in no more 48 hours.