Turkish-backed SNA continues tree logging in Syria’s Afrin
AFRIN, Syria (North Press) – A group affiliated with a faction of the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) cut down on Saturday dozens of trees in Kafr Safra woodland in Afrin, northwestern Syria, amid increasing indiscriminate logging with the approach of winter.
Since Turkey’s control of Afrin in 2018, the region has witnessed a significant decline in vegetation due to the cutting of thousands of trees. International media outlets have also documented the theft of olive oil from Afrin to Turkey to be sold in European markets.
Around 5,030 olive trees and 2,060 pomegranate trees have been cut down since the beginning of this year, according to the tally recorded by the Monitoring and Documentation Department of North Press.
Eyewitnesses from the area told North Press that a group of 15 militants from the Sultan Suleiman Shah Division (al-Amshat) had cut down over 90 trees in the woodland of Kafr Safra village near the town of Jindires in the Afrin countryside.
The sources have revealed that Maysara al-Hamwi, a close associate of the division’s leader, Muhammad al-Jasem Abu Amsha, is responsible for overseeing the ongoing tree cutting operations in the woods of Kafr Safra and Sheikh Hadid. Maysara al-Hamwi hails from the town of Hayalin in the western countryside of Hama, central-western Syria.