Rampant security chaos | Kidnappers threaten to kill young man unless ransom is paid in Turkish-held areas

Aleppo province: On August 1, unidentified gunmen kidnapped a civilian from Aleppo which is held by regime en route to “Euphrates Shield” areas via smuggling routes and threatened tokill him if his family refused to pay a ransom of 5,000 USD.

On August 2, personnel of Turkish Intelligence patrol arrested an employee in Jarablus’s Al-Nofous directorate for “making fake IDs to people from outside areas controlled by Turkish forces and their proxy factions in the northern countryside of Aleppo.”

Later, Turkish Intelligence released the civilian for lack of evidence of his involvement in the forgery.

On July 23, SOHR activists reported that armed men in military uniforms of Turkish-backed National Army kidnapped a young man in the youth hostel on Al-zeraa’h road in Al-Bab, east of Aleppo, and took him to an unknown destination on Saturday. The young man’s fate is still unknown.

Meanwhile, Al-Hamza militiamen assaulted a nearly 60-year-old elderly man. The elderly man suffered varying injuries and was taken to the hospital for treatment.

This incident came after disagreements erupted between a young man from Ghaytoun village in rural Akhtarin and members of Al-Hamza faction, then the militiamen beat the elderly man when he tried to stop Al-Hamza members from assaulting the young man.