Afrin still forcibly live violations, arrests, royalties collecting, and increasing tragedy as assassinations by Kurdish Forces’ cells raise to more than 100
Aleppo Province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights: Afrin in the northwestern countryside of Aleppo is living between action and reaction, between violation, torture, arrest, royalties collecting, looting, stealing, and targeting, and between all of that the citizen continues to suffer more, at a time hewer the forces that came to Afrin, attacked it, and now controlling it claimed that they came to “liberate” the area, but the liberation was not as expected, where the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitored bulldozers of “Olive Branch” operation cutting fruit and old olive trees in Hammam area and other areas in the countryside of Afrin, with the aim of creating space for establishing camps and headquarters by the factions operating in the Turkey-supported “Olive Branch” Operation, coincided with the continued collection of royalties by these factions from the citizens, who pay a royalty after the other, in addition to the arrest which has become a profitable trade, by fabricating charges against citizens to obtain money from them in exchange for their release.
And at the same time, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitored more operations against factions of the “Olive Branch” operation, fighters, and members of local councils by YPG, who carried out more than 103 assassinations and assassination attempts targeting the forces controlling Afrin area, which continue to prevent civilians from returning from the northern countryside of Aleppo, towards their towns, villages, and residences from which they have been displaced, the last of which was the targeting and killing of a local council member on charges of working for the Turkish Forces and the forces of “Olive Branch”, by setting a checkpoint and then shooting and killing him, while the Syrian Observatory published yesterday that the Assembly of Ahrar al-Sharqiyyah handed over a hill in Raju area in the western countryside of Afrin city to Jaysh al-Islam, where the latter started equipping its camp in this area along with distributing more than 100 of the displaced people’s homes by Ahrar al-Sharqiyyah on the commanders of the second and third ranks of Jaysh al-Islam in Afrin area, within the areas that are controlled by Ahrar al-Sharqiyyah in Afrin area in the northwestern countryside of Aleppo.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights published on the 13th of July 2018 that Al-Rahman Corps which has displaced from the Eastern Ghouta of Damascus, is preparing the Brigade 135 which used to be controlled by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) before the Operation “Olive Branch”, for starting training its fighters and those who recently joined it, and in the details documented by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights; Al-Rahman Corps tends to build dormitories and training yards, in the Brigade 135 in the north-eastern sector of Afrin area, in conjunction with raising high dirt barriers in the vicinity of the Brigade, for starting to train its fighters after they have been displaced months ago to the Syrian North and Afrin area, and reliable sources confirmed to the Syrian Observatory, that Al-Rahman Corps is continuing to recruit fighters in its ranks, through joining fighters of those who have been displaced from the Eastern Ghouta of Damascus, the countryside of the capital Damascus, and from both northern countryside of Homs and southern countryside of Hama, to volunteer in its ranks for monthly salary, where the number of fighters exceeded 1000 fighters, and Al-Rahman Corps tends, along with these preparations, to by heavy machineguns and various weapons and ammunition to arm itself.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights published on the 5th of August 2018 that the checkpoints which were set up by factions operating within the Operation “Olive Branch” led by Turkey, on the road to Azaz and within the side streets in Afrin area, impose sums of money on the citizens as they pass through these roads and checkpoints, where all of those check points force the residents to pay sums of money, in return for allowing the vehicles they ride on to cross, it also go far and reached that some of the checkpoints threatened the citizens by firearm, and they also impose larger royalties on the citizens and merchants who have goods or possessions with them during their travel, and the locals confirmed that factions including Sultan Murad Division, al-Hamzah Division and other factions operating in the area, imposed this kind of royalties, and the Syrian Observatory monitored about 72 hours ago, that a check point of al-Hamzah Division got citizens and citizen women off a mini-bus, abused and swore at them, and drew and directed weapons to them, because the passengers refused to pay a sum of money of 2000 SP (less than 6 Dollars), and these violations are animated on the road between Azaz and Afrin, as a result of the heavy traffic on the road as it is considered a main road for vehicles and buses, while the residents confirmed that the complains they presented to the Turkish forces which are located in Afrin, were ignored and the violations of the factions have not been stopped, and the members who committed violations against the residents, have not been even questioned.
And the Syrian Observatory published on the 3rd of August 2018, that the abduction continues in Afrin and its countryside, with the continuation of tightening the grip on the citizens and the violations practiced daily against them, by the factions operating within the Operation “Olive Branch”, which are in control of the area, under the command of the Turkish forces, where the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitored that arrests targeted more than 20 citizens including women, from Afrin city and several areas in its countryside, where they were taken to security headquarters of the forces of the “Olive Branch” Operation, where each faction carries out arrests according its likings, and the factions tend to release them only in the case of getting royalties, where local sources confirmed to the Syrian Observatory that the factions toke the arrests and releases as a source for collecting money, and in some cases the same person is subjected to arrests by more than one faction, also the Syrian Observatory monitored earlier that the regime forces continue to prevent citizens displaced from Afrin, of who try to displace to Aleppo city, to reach it, which increased these tragic humanitarian situations, where several reliable sources confirmed to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights that the checkpoints of the regime forces are continuing to impose fees on the citizens desire to reach Aleppo city, where about 1000$ is imposed for each single person, while others are helped to escape in different ways through the regime’s checkpoints inside Aleppo city, in return for large sums of money, where the residents complained to the SOHR about these situations, and the ongoing prevention of the regime’s checkpoints to reach Aleppo city despite the tragic humanitarian situation in the northern countryside of Aleppo, which is crowded with thousands of people displaced from Afrin city and its villages.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights published on the 30th of July 2018 that the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights received complaints from the people about the daily harassment they are living, with continuous violations against them, where residents confirmed to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights that the Turkish forces and opposition factions continue their abductions of Syrian civilians in Afrin area; under the pretext of being connected to the Kurdish Forces and the Democratic Union Party, where they are being taken to headquarters in Afrin area where they are investigated, tortured, and insulted, and the number of abductees have reached about 1000 people, according to intersected sources confirmed that to the Syrian Observatory, where more than half of them have been released after paying bribes and ransom to the factions that arrested them, while the Turkish forces and the factions refrained from releasing the rest of them except after paying money by their relatives, also the residents confirmed to the Syrian Observatory that the factions in Afrin city and the rest of the areas in its countryside are informing and threatening families and shopkeepers that they must pay them, and if they cannot pay them; fighters of the faction arrest them and force their relatives to provide that amount of money, and the residents confirmed to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights that the harassment did not stop at this point, of abduction, collecting money, torture, and humiliation, but rather to the fact that some checkpoints of a Division that operates under the banner of “Olive Branch” which are scattered in al-Basutah road area, are looting money from the citizens who pass through this road, especially the vehicles carrying food and fuel, and they prevent the passage of trucks and vehicles without paying royalty, they also take royalties from the citizens in exchange for transferring them through al-Basutah road to Afrin city by military missions; after the closure of the road by the Turkish Forces, where recently the roads to Afrin city have witnessed a search and scrutiny on the checkpoints of the Turkish Forces and the “Olive Branch” operation factions.
The settlements have not stopped, where each faction is trying to increase the number of its fighters by announcing “offers” to settling its fighters in Afrin, and giving them homes and salaries to join its ranks, where displaced people from the Eastern Ghouta and other Syrian areas have had settlement in exchange for being recruited in the ranks of “Olive Branch”, or the factions that displaced from several other Syrian areas, along with seizing more property of the citizens of agricultural lands, farms, houses, vehicles and other property by members and fighters of these factions, where some of immovable properties are being completely seized, while the movable properties are being seized, of furniture, vehicles, jewelry, and electronic devices, also, the locals confirmed the SOHR that fighters of some factions have ignited the property of citizens as a revenge against some of them, and as a response for citizens’ refusal to pay royalties for the factions which are located in their controlled areas in the vicinity of Afrin city and the areas of Bulbula, Raju, Sharra, Shirawa, Jendires, Maabatli and Meidan Ekbis, where the factions sat on fire in hundreds of fruitful olive trees, and farms which raged the resentment of the residents in which the Turkish forces which claimed that they came to “liberate” them, became the perpetrator of violations and allow them to be carried out without deterring any faction, where reliable sources informed the Syrian Observatory that some residents became afraid of moving in Afrin countryside, for fear of being arrested or assaulted by the factions, which turned the roads to Afrin and the widespread checkpoints, into sources for funding themselves by looting and robbing the passengers, The difficult humanitarian situation in Afrin city and its countryside, are accompanied with disastrous humanitarian and health conditions for hundreds of thousands of displaced people who remained in the northern countryside of Aleppo, whose are prevented from returning to Afrin area by the forces of “Olive Branch” operation and the Turkish Forces who are located on the outskirts of the Afrin region from the side of the northern countryside of Aleppo, while medical and relief organizations are looking away of their tragedy, and turn their back and they do not provide life-saving assistance or prevent the hunger and disease from spreading among them in these extreme weather conditions.