Afrin city witnesses the third internal fighting between forces operating within Operation “Olive Branch” since the first fighting on the Locusts Day and looting Afrin
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights obtained information from a number of reliable sources, about the breakout of fighting between the forces operating within Operation “Olive Branch” in Afrin city, and in the details obtained by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights; the fighting started between a Kurdish faction operating within Operation “Olive Branch” against Jaysh Ahrar al-Sharqiyyah of which most of its fighters are from Deir Ezzor Province, led to exchange of fire which resulted in the fall of wounded in the ranks of the both parties, followed by intervention of the military police, which turned into a confrontation between Ahrar al-Sharqiyyah against the Turkish police, which pushed the latter to bring reinforcements to control the situation and security chaos in Afrin city which was caused by this fighting, where the city is still witnessing a state of security alertness and sound of sporadic shooting every now and then.
And the Syrian Observatory published on the 25th of March 2018, that it monitored clashes taking place between two Syrian opposition factions operating within the Turkish-led “Olive Branch” Operation, which began on the 20th of Janurary 2018, to control Afrin area, and in the detail obtained by the SOHR from several reliable sources, a violent clashes took place between fighters of Ahrar Al-Sharkia faction, whose fighters mostly come from Deir Ezzor province, against Al-Hamzat battalion, which includes fighters from Aleppo countryside, and the fighting took place in Afrin city, after Ahrar al-Sharkia accused Al-Hamzat battalion of looting Afrin city based on orders from western parties, to defame the “Olive Branch” Operation, as Hamzat battalion was close to the SDF and was supported by the US before joining the Turkish-backed forces, and the SOHR learned at that time from several reliable sources that the violent clashes took place between both parties in Afrin city killed 3 fighters of Ahrar Al-Sharqkia, one of them is a leader, in addition to the death of 3 other fighters of Al-Hamzat battalion, while several others were injured. Ahrar Al-Sharkia received orders from the Turkish military command of “Olive Branch” Operation to arrest the fighters of Al-Hamzat village, and the faction has arrested at least 130 fighters of Al-Hamzat battalion. The clashes also expanded in positions of the presence of both factions in Al-Ra’ey and Al-Bab, where clashes and exchange of attacks took place between both parties, resulted in the death of a fighters of Ahrar Al-Sharkia in Al-Raeey, while information was reported about the death of a civilian who was injured in the fighting in the city located in the northern countryside of Aleppo, and these clashes taking place between the factions of “Olive Branch” operation come a week after the first clashes took place between two groups that controlled Afrin against the background of looting of Afrin and its countryside, where several reliable sources confirmed to the SOHR that most of the factions and military forces took part in it. The looting was carried out by few fighters of the factions. They looted food, cars, and agriculture vehicles, and electronic devices, electricity generators, public and private properties in the city since the control over the city of Afrin on the 18th of March 2018. citizens confirmed to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights that these forces tend to continue their thefts and looting to everything they would find in the citizens’ houses and public institutions and facilities, and the citizens asserted that their mobile phones, cars, tractors, motorbikes and electronic sets and equipment were looted, and reliable sources said that their houses were looted of all their contents of equipment, machineries and supplies, and the citizens also asserted that the humanitarian aid was organizationally distributed in front of the media in the cameras, while behind the cameras and in the scattered and remote villages in Afrin countryside, these humanitarian aid was sold at high prices to merchants and shop owners, who also tended to sell them for the citizens at double prices of those which the foodstuff was purchased at, and the forces of the “Olive Branch” Operation are continuing to interrupt electricity and water to the most of Afrin area.
The SOHR also published on the 23rd of May 2018, that between displacement, survival and return, the people of Afrin area are living in miserable conditions, some of which vary and others intersect, and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitored the continuation of tragedy for hundreds of thousands of displaced people due to the Operation “Olive Branch”, during which the Turkish forces and the Syrian opposition the rebel and Islamic factions were able to control the entire area of Afrin, after violent ashes and heavy shelling by artillery and rocket shells, and missiles believed to be ground-to-ground and bombardment of the warplanes and helicopter by missiles and barrel bombs, which caused Major destruction in Afrin area and killed some 300 civilians including tens of children and female citizens, where the displaced citizens are still living in tragic conditions, the provided services are declining, and the relief and humanitarian organizations turn a blind eye of the people who are in distress, they are tens of thousands of displaced people including children and female citizens, also local sources reported to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights that treatment of the inhabitants and people of Afrin area differ from one area to another, where the treatment in Afrin city is subject to the authority of the Turkish military police, which is comparatively better than the countryside’s which –according to the locals– is subject to the mood of the factions, where the restrictions on the citizens vary from ab area to the other, depending on the faction that controls the area, and the Syrian Observatory’s intersected sources confirmed that the citizens are being narrowed on, and they are not allowed to leave their area except by an official permission of the area’s faction, sometimes they are prevented completely from exiting, with the continued raids on houses and arresting citizens on various charges and pretexts, where residents said that some factions are trying through the arrests to obtain money from the families of the detainees in order to be released.
In another context, displaced families in the northern countryside of Aleppo were able to return to Afrin area, after being allowed by the checkpoints of factions and the Turkish Forces to return to the area, sources told the Syrian Observatory that the numbers of returnees is considered too small compared to hundreds of thousands of who have been displaced from Afrin and its countryside, and the returning families are being subjected to investigation about the existence of family members who are enrolled in the Self-Defense duty, and whether they were joined voluntarily or are forced to do so, as well as their partisan and political connection with the Democratic Union Party and Kurdish Forces, while reliable sources told the Syrian Observatory that some of the citizens who tried to return to Afrin in the past days were shot by members on a checkpoint of the Kurdish Units, which killed a young man and information about other wounded people, where that shooting took place during a demonstration called for the open of road to for them to return to their homes in Afrin area, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also published on the 11th of May 2018 that it has increased to 2500, the number of families which reached Afrin area controlled by the Turkish authorities and the “Euphrates Shield” Operation forces, and the intersected sources confirmed to the SOHR that more than 40% of the total number of people who have been resettled in Afrin, are families of fighters of the Eastern Ghouta’s factions, and the largest part is of families of Al-Rahman Corps’ fighters then of Jaysh Al-Islam, while the total number of families of the fighters of Ahrar Al-Sham Islamic movement of who have been resettled, does not exceed 50 families.