Human rights organizations in northeastern Syria call for investigation of Afrin bombing
North-Press Agency
On Friday, a number of human rights organizations working in northeastern Syria called for the formation of an independent judicial investigation committee to uncover the perpetrators of the bombing that struck a popular market in the city of Afrin and killed dozens last Tuesday.
This came in a joint statement of three human rights organizations that are active in the al-Jazira, Afrin, and Euphrates regions, in which they appealed to international and regional parties to take their responsibility for the Syrian people and to work quickly to reach a peaceful political solution to the Syrian crisis.
The organizations called for the formation of an independent and neutral judicial investigation committee, with the participation of representatives of organizations defending human and women's rights, to uncover all violations committed in Afrin and the perpetrators of bombing the civilians in the popular market in Afrin.
The statement also called for Turkey to bear all legal and moral responsibility for the bombing in Afrin, and for other violations and massacres committed in Afrin “as an occupying power."
It demanded that the fate of all kidnapped individuals be made known and that they all be released, including men, women and children, who are detained in the prisons of Turkish forces and their affiliated Syrian armed groups.
The statement said that the bombing took place in conjunction with a series of violations committed by the Turkish forces and their Syrian armed groups in a systematic and clear manner to bring about demographic change.
According to local sources, more than 60 people were killed and more than 70 others were injured in a bombing in a popular market in the city of Afrin last Tuesday.
On Thursday, Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) Commander-in-Chief Mazloum Abdi called for an international investigation to be opened on what he described as “crimes committed in the Syrian region of Afrin since the Turkish army and its groups took over two years ago.”
The SDF Commander-in-Chief said that conducting an investigation of the Afrin bombing and the rest of the violations in this region “will show the falseness of Turkey’s accusations against our forces, which it made shortly after the bombing.”