Government forces tighten siege on Kurdish areas in Aleppo
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – Syrian government forces tightened on Monday the siege and security measures imposed on two Kurdish-majority neighborhoods in Aleppo city, northwestern Syria.
An exclusive source, who preferred to remain unnamed for security reasons, told North Press that the government forces, stationed in checkpoints surrounding the Ashrafiyeh and Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhoods, tightened security measures and inspections on people passing in and out.
Both neighborhoods are semi-autonomous and are run by a Kurdish-Arab joint civil administration.
The government forces claimed, without elaborating further, that sleeper cells passed through these neighborhoods to other areas held by the government forces, according to the source.
They justified that the intense security measures came following the intensifying drone attacks carried out lately against the government-held neighborhoods in the city of Aleppo, the source added.
Instead, soldiers of the government, operating at the checkpoints, seize large sums of money from the residents, which they are forced to carry to buy their basic needs as a result of the inflation, the source noted. They seize US dollars and unregistered mobile phones, in addition to foreign-made clothes.
Even though the Syrian government forbade dealing with US dollar under penalty of imprisonment, the foreign currency finds its way into both neighborhoods through merchants in connection with senior officers in the security branches who take a share of the profits.
The source pointed out that the intensive inspections on checkpoints are carried out based on information provided by the government agents planted in the neighborhoods. They arrest people wanted for security or political reasons, or to serve the reserve military service after receiving specific intelligence from the agents.
Two days earlier, the government forces tightened the siege on the northern countryside of Aleppo, aka the Shahba Region, and prevented the entry of heating fuel, the source said. The area is adjacent to the two neighborhoods, however, the in-and-out passage is only allowed through three checkpoints of the government forces.
The government forces used to allow the passage of five fuel tankers to Shahba Region in return for getting 10 sent by the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), he further added.
About 110,000 IDPs reside in over 50 villages and towns in Shahba Region and the five camps of Barkhodan, Sardam, Afrin, al-Awda, and Shahba, following Afrin’s invasion in 2018 in a military operation dubbed “Olive Branch” by Turkey along with its affiliated armed opposition factions, aka the Syrian National Army (SNA).
The AANES frequently sends fuel tankers to the besieged areas in Aleppo but the government forces prevent their entry, leading to shortage in the substance. This negatively affects the resident’s lives, especially in the winter, as power generators are operated only two hours per day.