Advocacy group documents violations against displaced Kurds in Aleppo
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – Synergy/Hevdesti Association, a victims’ advocacy group operating in Northeast Syria, documented on Tuesday numerous violations, including killings, arrests, and enforced disappearances, targeting Kurdish civilians displaced from the northern countryside of Aleppo, northwestern Syria.
These abuses were carried out by Turkish-backed armed opposition factions, aka the Syrian National Army (SNA), as civilians fled ongoing clashes in the area.
In a recent report, Synergy highlighted several cases of violence, including the killing of a man and his 24-year-old son. Their vehicle was attacked by SNA militants while they attempted to flee the Shahba region, an area of about 40 villages in the north of Aleppo where the Afrin IDPs took shelter after they fled their hometown following the Turkish “Olive Branch Operation” in 2018.
The man’s wife and daughter sustained serious injuries in the same incident, the Synergy added.
In another documented case, Ahmad Hesso, an elderly Kurdish Yazidi man, was killed, and his wife was injured after SNA militants shot at them while they returned to their home village of Qibar in Afrin countryside, trying to escape the conflict in Shahba.
The report also revealed the abduction of a Kurdish man and his wife in Tel Rifaat by the factions, who demanded a substantial ransom for their release.
In addition, Synergy reported an attack on a convoy of displaced persons from Afrin stranded in the village of Tel Qarah. SNA militants arrested several individuals, most of whom were young men.
The report highlighted that many Kurdish civilians who remained in their homes due to an inability to flee were also arrested, while others went missing during attempts to escape the violence in Tel Rifaat and Shahba. Their whereabouts remain unknown.