Arbitrary arrests | “National Army” factions arrest six civilians in Afrin countryside

Aleppo province: SOHR activists have reported that members of a patrol of Al-Sultan Murad faction raided Qutan village in Bulbul district in Afrin countryside, on Syria-Turkey border on September 20, arresting five people for “dealing with the former “Autonomous Administration,” to collect ransoms.

While on September 9, members of a patrol of Al-Mu’tasim faction arrested a resident of Khalalko village in Bulbul district, Afrin countryside, on charges of dealing with the former “Autonomous Administration,” and took him to Marea prison in the northern countryside of Aleppo, in order to collect ransoms.

On September 24, SOHR sources reported that members of a civil police patrol arbitrarily arrested, a few days ago, two civilians from Jendires district in Afrin countryside in north western Aleppo for “dealing with the former Autonomous Administration,” with the aim of collecting ransoms.

On the other hand, members of Sultan Murad Division brutally beat civilians who participated in the funeral of a Yazidi woman a few days ago. According to SOHR sources, the crowds participating in the funeral were heading to Bulbul district to bury the woman in district’s cemetery, but a group of civilians was beaten by the division’s militiamen who claimed that a civilian car was trying to hit their car. When residents interfered to prevent the militiamen from beating civilians, they were also beaten by the Turkish-backed militiamen who threaten to arrest the residents for “attempting to kill members of Sultan Murad Division and verbally abusing them.”

Meanwhile, the military police released a civilian from Dikiyah village in Raju district, after having paid a ransom of 300 USD. The man was arrested on August 23 for “dealing with the former Autonomous Administration.”