Arbi*trary arrests | Military police arrest six civilians, including woman, in Afrin

Aleppo province: On December 22, a military police patrol arrested five residents of Maydan Akbas village in Raju district in Afrin countryside, north-west of Aleppo. Among the detainees was a woman.

The civilians were arrested following attending the mourning of a villager who was killed in Turkey and was working for the PKK.

Meanwhile, a military police checkpoint on Raju-Afrin road arrested an engineer from Alamdar village in Raju district of Afrin countryside for “working in Autonomous Administrations institutions during their control over Afrin,” in order to collect a ransom.

Yesterday, SOHR sources reported that members of the Turkish-backed division of Sultan Suleiman Shah, aka “Al-Amshat,” arrested five Kurdish civilians in the villages of Kakherah and Hesiyyah in Maabatli district in Afrin countryside, which are controlled by “Olive Branch” operations room.

The civilians were arrested for “dealing with the former Autonomous Administration and participating in guard shifts during the Autonomous Administration’s control of the canton.”

The fate of the civilians remained unknown, while members of the faction communicated with their families, asking them to pay ransoms of 200 USD for every person in return for their release.