UPDATES:militants Afrin / ldlib

[Anthea]

33 abductions and arrests in November

The occupying Turkish state and its gangs were involved in 33 cases of kidnapping and arrest against civilians in Afrin in November, extorted 5 million 400 thousand dollars from farmers during this period

In a statement released by the Afrin-Syria Human Rights Organisation on the inhumane crimes committed by the Turkish state and its gangs against the occupied Afrin region, it was said that 33 kidnappings and arrests took place in November. On the other hand, 15 people from Afrin and Shehba were injured in continued attacks against the region.

The Human Rights Organisation stated that the construction of colonial houses, started by the Watan organisation in Mabeta district in line with the instructions of the Turkish state's policy of changing the demographic structure has been completed. Accordingly, the colonial area of 'Qeryet Besme' built in Şadirê village of Şêrawa district is gradually expanding.

The Human Rights Organisation stated that the Turkish state, not content with its policy of demographic change, is destroying nature in the olive fields of the citizens it seized in Afrin region. The gangs sell the downed trees to traders, steal the products of the citizens and extort money from the locals.

According to the statement, the Sultan Suleiman Shah (al-Amshat) gangs extorted 5 million 400 thousand dollars from Kurdish farmers in the districts of Mabeta and Shiyê in November alone.

[Anthea]

Assad regime strikes rebel-held Idlib

ERBIL, Kurdistan - At least seven civilians were killed and over 40 injured on Saturday in Syrian army bombardment on the northwestern Idlib province, the last remaining rebel bastion in the area, a war monitor reported

“Seven people including two children and a woman were killed in Idlib and one man was killed in Sarmin town, while 42 civilians were injured,” said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a Britain-based war monitor

The strikes were part of a total of 35 missiles fired by the Syrian regime on residential and industrial areas of Idlib city, according to SOHR.

Half of Idlib province, as well as parts of Aleppo, Hama, and Latakia provinces, are the last rebel-held bastions in the country after President Bashar al-Assad seized back swathes of territory over the course of the brutal Syrian civil war, which erupted in 2011.

Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the former Syrian branch of al-Qaeda, is the prominent force among dozens of different rebel factions operating in the rebel-held northwest. It controls large swathes of Idlib and parts of Aleppo, Hama, and Latakia provinces

It has been internationally recognized as a terrorist organization.

A ceasefire brokered by Russia and Turkey has been in place in northwest Syria since March 2020, but the area has witnessed a recent flare-up in violence.

Over 13 million Syrians have been displaced since the start of the civil war, more than six million of which are refugees who have fled the war-torn country, according to a report from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/syria/10122023

[Anthea]

Child among 8 killed in Syria clashes

Eight civilians, including a child, were killed Monday during exchanges of fire between the army and rebels in northwestern Syria, with 19 others wounded

The fighting pitted the army of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad against Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an Islamist group led by Al-Qaeda's former Syria branch.

"An elderly man, a woman and her young daughter were killed and 10 other civilians were wounded in a bombardment by the HTS on the villages of Nubul and Zahraa, in a part of Aleppo province controlled by the Syrian regime," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

HTS and other groups control swathes of Idlib province and parts of neighbouring Aleppo, Hama and Latakia provinces.

The Syrian army retaliated by bombing residential areas of Darat Izza town in Aleppo, killing three civilians and wounding nine others, the Observatory said.

The Britain-based war monitor, which has a network of sources inside Syria, said the bombardments struck a bakery, a mosque, a power plant and a popular market.

Army artillery fire killed two other civilians in the Aleppo village of Burj Haidar, the Observatory said.

A brutal Syrian government crackdown on Arab Spring-inspired protests that erupted in 2011 spiralled into a devastating war involving foreign armies, militias and jihadists.

More than half a million people have been killed in the conflict.

Last week, Russian air strikes on Idlib province, killed five civilians from the same family, including three children, according to rescuers and the Observatory.

Moscow is one of Assad's key backers, providing him with military, political and economic support in the country's civil war.

Russia's intervention in the war since 2015 has helped forces loyal to Assad claw back much of the territory they lost in the conflict.

A ceasefire brokered by Russia and Turkey was declared in Idlib after a Syrian government offensive in March 2020, but it has been repeatedly violated.

https://www.kurdistan24.net/en/story/33 ... s:-monitor

HTS has incorporated a great many former ISIS members into it's ranks

[Anthea]

Arabs assault Kurdish man

Resettled Arab shepherds physically assaulted a Kurdish man in a village in northwest Syria’s Afrin after he prevented them from grazing their livestock in his olive orchard, a human rights watchdog reported on Sunday

The Afrin Human Rights Organization said that Ahmad Alu, a local of Barkasha village, required medical treatment due to sustaining an injury to his head and bruises on his body after being assaulted by the shepherds.

The rights monitor accused the perpetrators of being linked to Turkey-backed militias in the area, adding that similar attacks are carried out against Kurdish residents of the village regularly.

Afrin is a Kurdish city which was invaded by Turkey and its Syrian mercenaries after they launched a military operation against Kurdish fighters in January 2018. Since then, the members of the pro-Turkey groups have been accused of violating the rights of Kurds as well as cutting olive trees of Kurdish farmers

Human rights groups and the United Nations have published reports detailing arbitrary arrests, detention and pillaging, among other violations.

Turkish-backed groups have been widely accused of human rights violations against Afrin’s locals, including kidnap, looting and extortion.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/syria/22012024

[Anthea]

BCF Aids Afrin Municipality

The Kurdish Barzani Charity Foundation (BCF), jointly with the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) Joint Crisis Coordination Center (JCC), delivered crucial logistical support to the municipality of Afrin city

Rawaj Haji, a member of the Executive Board of the charity organization overseeing the Afrin initiative, highlighted the collaborative efforts involved, saying the BCF in cooperation with the Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW) and the JCC provided an excavator and its accompanying equipment, along with essential daily necessities for employees and service workers dedicated to the region's betterment.

Haji underscored the significance of this aid for the residents of Afrin, particularly in light of the humanitarian challenges faced following last year's earthquakes. "This assistance is of great importance for the residents of the city and the recovery of their lives, especially after last year's earthquakes, which suffered a major humanitarian disaster," he noted.

The BCF official affirmed that these aid initiatives will extend to Afrin and its surrounding districts and villages. The organization, in collaboration with its international and local partners, aims to reach as many individuals as possible.

Following the seismic events in February 2023, and the subsequent establishment of the BCF office in Afrin, various aid items, encompassing food, non-food essentials, health provisions, and cultural and vocational courses, have been delivered to the residents of the area

In a separate statement, the BCF said that victims of the fire in Mam Rashan camp would be compensated.

“Barzani Charity Foundation (BCF) in collaboration with Caritas Germany, on January 15, 2024 in Mam Rashan camp, distributed household items (refrigerators, washing machines, mattresses and blankets) to four families who were affected by the fire in their caravans,” reads the statement.

https://www.basnews.com/en/babat/837334

[Anthea]

Syrian Militias Abduct Kurds

Armed Syrian militias have kidnapped five Kurdish citizens in Afrin under false charges and pretenses to extort financial ransom from them, the Human Rights Organization in Afrin confirmed on Wednesday

The Kurdish citizens were identified as Abdou Shaban, Abdulrahman Kaark, Ahmed Sleiman, Mustafa Ahmed Sleiman, and Hamid Abdulrahman from various areas in Afrin, according to the organization.

Additionally, the "militia members have cut down dozens of olive trees in the Maabatli district with the intention of selling them as firewood,” it added.

The abduction of civilians and the destruction of agricultural resources represent ongoing challenges faced by the Kurdish population in Afrin, exacerbating existing tensions in the region since 2018 when the Turkish army and Ankara-backed Syrian Islamist militias took over Afrin after a two-month conflict with the Syrian Kurdish forces.

https://www.basnews.com/en/babat/840990

[Anthea]

BCF provides help to Afrin refugees

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) – The Barzani Charity Foundation (BCF) on Friday provided assistance to dozens of refugee families in Afrin, Western Kurdistan

Afrin residents told Kurdistan24 that since the BCF came to the area, it has distributed a lot of aid and has become a source of hope for the refugees who have returned there.

According to Ahmad Hassan, chairman of the Kurdish National Council in Afrin, the BCF has provided assistance to dozens of refugees seeking a new beginning.

There are currently hundreds of families benefiting from the assistance provided by the BCF in Afrin.

On March 18, 2018, Turkey and the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) invaded Afrin as part of Operation Olive Branch, resulting in the displacement of thousands of Kurdish civilians

The occupation has continued amid widespread accusations of war crimes, including ethnic cleansing, kidnapping for ransom, and gender-based violence.

Moreover, Turkey has threatened to launch a new operation in northern Syria.

The Human Rights Organization in Afrin announced on November 28, 2022, that 8,000 Kurdish civilians had been abducted since 2018.

https://www.kurdistan24.net/en/story/34 ... n-refugees

[Anthea]

Idlib shakes from within

The arrest campaign carried out by Abu Muhammad al-Jolani during the recent period was “to get rid of his potential rivals.”

For weeks, Idlib has witnessed demonstrations that have reached a record level in terms of the number of participants and demands that are no longer limited only to “holding accountable and excluding the security services affiliated with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and cleaning prisons and revealing the fate of the forcibly disappeared," rather it extended to include “demanding the overthrow of al-Jolani, ending the rule of HTS, and replacing it with a civil administration."

Killing of Jaysh al-Ahrar member under torture

Last year, HTS began investigations into the so-called “agent’s case”, as it launched a massive arrest campaign that targeted hundreds of members and a number of leaders in the organization, some of them on charges of working for the CIA and others on charges of working for Russia and the Syrian government.

The most important of these detainees was “Abu Maria Al-Qahtani” (Iraqi national), the former deputy of Al-Jolani and one of the most prominent leaders and founders of the “al-Nusra Front”, who was recently released after “his acquittal”.

Local sources suggested that the arrest campaign carried out by Abu Muhammad al-Jolani during the recent period was “to get rid of his potential rivals.”

But the spark that ignited popular anger was the killing of Abdul Qadir al-Hakim, known as “Abu Ubaida” from the “Jaysh al-Ahrar” faction, who was killed in prison under torture and then buried in the Aleppo countryside.

These demonstrations were expected for many reasons

The outbreak of the current demonstrations against HTS was not surprising but was expected due to the exacerbation of several factors, the first of which is the continued deterioration of living conditions in northern Syria.

According to international statistics, the percentage of the population below the poverty line reaches about 90%, at a time when HTS controls all local resources, and its “Salvation Government” takes control of the international aid arriving through the Bab al-Hawa crossing and distributes it at its own discretion and in a way that serves the interests of officials, according to local sources.

This aid is constantly decreasing due to the decline in funding from donor countries, especially the US and the EU countries, who are busy confronting Russia in Ukraine and providing their support to "Israel" in the war of genocide it is waging against the Palestinians in Gaza.

In parallel, popular dissatisfaction has increased in the recent period due to the repression practiced by HTS security forces, not only against residents who oppose them but also against citizens who live in the camps who protest their continued suffering in obtaining water, electricity, and hospitalization.

It is noteworthy that the lines of contact between the areas where terrorist factions are deployed in Idlib and the areas controlled by the Syrian army have become heated recently.

The terrorists carried out multiple “marauding operations” and launched suicide drones that attempted to target the Syrian army, which announced in several statements that it shot down all of them, eliminated the infiltrators, and arrested one of them in the southern countryside of Idlib.

Why has Turkey not yet commented on what is happening?

According to observers, it is unlikely that these protests will end soon or that people will calm down after they were exposed to violence and after al-Jolani threatened them with the continued use of excessive force.

But what is really striking is Turkey's silence or non-intervention so far, which may indicate that it thinks that “weakening HTS would be in its interest because the stage needs more flexible organizations, and that’s why it views these demonstrations as serving its direction in one way or another.”

The HTS (formerly al-Nusra Front) is classified as a terrorist organization by the United Nations and many countries, including Russia.

This terrorist organization includes a large number of foreign fighters, whose number exceeds 8,000 fighters in Idlib, 6500 of whom are Uyghurs, Caucasians, Tajiks, and Chechens, while Arabs, most of whom are from North Africa, hold administrative, security, and military positions.

https://english.almayadeen.net/articles ... rom-within

[Anthea]

Turkish-Backed Arabization Campaign

Turkey and its militia groups are continuing efforts to change the demographics of Afrin (Efrîn) and surrounding areas in northwest Syria and Western Kurdistan, aiming to erase Kurdish identity.

This campaign includes the occupation of Kurdish properties, destruction of olive groves, and resettling of Syrian Arabs in Kurdish areas.

Following the occupation of Afrin in March 2018, Turkey has forcibly relocated Syrian refugees to Afrin, displacing tens of thousands of Kurds. Refugees like Mohammed and Khalid Ahmad recount their forced expulsions and challenging lives in Afrin.

Demographic changes are stark: only 8,883 Kurdish families remain, while 42,000 Arab families have settled. The environmental impact is severe, with hundreds of thousands of olive trees destroyed and numerous archaeological sites looted. The Human Rights Organization in Afrin reports over 50 historical monuments have been excavated, with artifacts transported to Turkey.

Afrin, rich in history, hosts numerous archaeological sites dating back to 2000 BC, including the tomb of Saint Maron and 25 historical hills.

https://www.basnews.com/en/babat/852024

[Anthea]

Some village guards resign after being forced

to move to occupied Afrin

In the northern Syrian city of Afrin, occupied by the Turkish state and its gangs since 2018, protests started due to the latest wave of racist attacks in Turkey

According to the information obtained, some village guards in Hazro district of Amed (Diyarbakır) were asked to go to Afrin upon the start of the protests.

In Eyndar and Dedaş neighbourhoods, village guards named H.D., M.B., H.P., C.P. and H.C. stated that they did not want to go to Afrin and resigned.

Background

In the wake of the racist lynching, burning and looting incidents directed against Syrians in Turkey, which started in the province of Kayseri on 30 June and then spread to many other cities, tensions also rose in the occupied regions in northern Syria. Angry masses burnt Turkish flags and tried to seize military bases and border points held by the Turkish forces and allied groups.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), seven people were killed following the clashes and random shooting in Afrin and different areas in the northern Aleppo countryside. According to the observatory, six people, including five former fighters, were killed by Turkish forces in Afrin. One other person was killed in Jarablus.

On the other hand, more than 20 others were injured in clashes and random shooting, amid ongoing clashes and the angry protests that took place in a number of cities and towns in northern Syria within areas controlled by Turkish forces and their proxies in northern, in eastern Aleppo countryside, in the HTS-held areas in Idlib and countryside and the western countryside of Aleppo.

The protests followed racist violations against Syrian refugees in Turkey without actions by the Turkish authorities to protect the Syrian people. Clashes erupted with machineguns between armed protesters and members of Turkish forces in front of the Al-Saraya Building in Afrin city.

Village guards

Village guards are paramilitary units used in Kurdistan against guerrillas and unwelcome opposition members. They consist, to a considerable extent, of tribal leaders, large landowners, families, and individuals who have often worked with the state for decades in an attempt to advocate for the state's interests in Kurdistan. Some of the village guards join this system voluntarily, while others are threatened with murder, arrest, and expulsion and must become village guardians under pressure.

The Hamidiye regiments in the Ottoman Empire are considered the historical model of the village guards. Today's village guard system came into being in 1985, a year after the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) launched its armed struggle. At that time, the Turkish government under Turgut Özal began recruiting and arming Kurdish tribes and clans in the war against the PKK. Thousands of Kurdish villages that rejected the village guard system were burned and razed to the ground by the state in the 1990s.

[Anthea]

Ukrainian instructors in Syria

to train terrorists

A group of 250 instructors of the Ukrainian army arrived in the Idlib province in northern Syria to train militants from the terrorist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham in the production and modernization of drones

"There is confirmed information that the number of Ukrainian instructors who have already arrived in Idlib has reached 250 people. They have been distributed among production facilities in the city of Idlib and in the Jisir al-Shughur region," the source said, specifying that the instructors are training in the production and modernization of unmanned aerial vehicles.

"More than 250 UAVs were delivered to HTS in Idlib in batches in the form of components along with civilian goods," the source added.

Meanwhile, Syrian newspaper Al Watan reported that the head of Ukraine's intelligence services, Kyrylo Budanov, has been in consistent contact with the head of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, attempting to recruit combatants to join the Ukrainian armed forces.

https://en.mehrnews.com/news/221374/Ukr ... terrorists

[Anthea]

6 killed 29 wounded in September

The Afrin-Syria Human Rights Organization announced that the Turkish state killed 6 people and injured 29 people in September

The Afrin-Syria Human Rights Organization published its September report on the crimes committed by the Turkish state and its gangs against the people of Afrin under its occupation.

The report shared information about the crimes committed by the Turkish state-affiliated gangs against civilians, such as massacre, harassment, torture, usurpation of citizens' property, cutting down trees and changing the demographic structure of the region.

The report said that 6 people were killed, and 26 people were injured, and added that the Turkish state robbed the people of their property in the village of Kaxîrê and forced them to pay money.

The Violations Documentation Center, meanwhile, reported that more than 50 people were kidnapped in the occupied regions in September.

[Anthea]

Mine explosion in Aleppo

At least five people from one family were injured on Friday by an exploding mine in northern Syria, according to local sources. It is suspected that the explosive device was planted by Islamic State (ISIS) sleeper cells

The incident took place in Tal Qarah village in the Shahba region of Aleppo province that houses hundreds of thousands of Kurds who were displaced from their nearby hometown of Afrin during the 2018 invasion by Turkey and its Syrian proxies.

“The improvised mine exploded near an IDP [internally displaced] family from Afrin Friday afternoon while they were going to harvest their olives,” Ibrahim Shekho, a Kurdish rights activist, told Rudaw.

He said six people were injured, including a three-year-old child.

The mine had been laid by ISIS members in the region, according to ANHA news agency, which is affiliated with the local Kurdish authorities. The outlet reported that five people aged between 20 and 50 and all from one family were injured.

No group has claimed responsibility

ISIS seized control of swathes of Syrian and Iraqi territory in 2014. Despite being territorially defeated by 2019, the group continues to carry out hit-and-run attacks, targeting civilians and security forces.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/syria/01112024

[Anthea]

Militants prevent Afrin’s Kurdish farmers

from harvesting olives

Members of a Turkey-backed militia group in northwest Syria are preventing Kurdish farmers from harvesting their olives, a local source said

Commanders of the Sulaiman Shah Brigade have blocked Kurdish farmers from entering their olive orchards in the Kurzele village of Afrin region, a local source to Rudaw on Saturday, speaking on condition of anonymity.

17 Kurdish families with about 4,000 olive trees, have been affected

The Sulaiman Shah Brigade is based in northern Syria and is accused of numerous human rights violations, especially against Kurdish residents. In 2023, the United States sanctioned the group for “serious human rights abuses committed in northern Syria, including abduction, severe physical abuse, and rape.”

Olives are an important economic crop in Afrin

Abdulrahman Korajo is a Germany-based Kurdish activist from the enclave. He said Arab settlers have confiscated and stolen olives from Kurdish farmers and local authorities have done nothing to stop them.

“The people of Kurzele village have been banned from entering their farms. Arabs affiliated with this brigade harvest the olives in the light of day but there is no one to hold them accountable. Our people of Afrin have been working these farms for years but Arabs have confiscated and stolen them,” he said.

Afrin was invaded by Turkey and its Syrian proxies in 2018 after years of Kurdish rule under the People’s Protection Units (YPG).

Human rights groups and the United Nations have published reports detailing arbitrary arrests, detention and pillaging, among other violations in Afrin since 2018.

https://www.rudaw.net/english/business/02112024

[Anthea]

Occupation forces kidnap 9 people

cut down dozens of trees

The Afrin-Syria Human Rights Organisation published a report on human rights violations committed by the Turkish state and allied mercenaries in the northern Syrian city of Afrin. The report covers crimes against civilians such as kidnapping, ransom and ecological destruction

On 2 October 2024,Turkish state-affiliated ‘Military Police’ abducted Cîhan Bekir Elo (30) and Cewdet Kênco Kênco (35) from Celemê town in Jindires district at a checkpoint in Qetmê village in the Shera district. Cîhan was taken to Raiyê prison and Cewdet Kênco was taken to Ezaz prison upon the instruction of the Turkish National Intelligence Organisation (MIT).

On 15 November, Rêber Hesen Reşîd (34) from Kaxirê village of Mabata district, Mistefa Ehmed Ehmed (42) and Enwer Mihemed Elî (40) from Badîna town of Rajo district and four other people from Aleppo were abducted by Turkish gendarmerie (military police) while trying to cross the border to Turkey. Ransom was demanded from their families for their release.

On the other hand, Al-Amshat and Hemzat mercenary groups cut down 30 trees, 25 of which were olive trees belonging to Nidal Eli Ehmed in Qeretepe village of Shera district. 7 olive trees belonging to a person named Xelîl Hiso were also cut down by the same groups.