Turkish-backed armed group fires on women and children in Syria’s northwest Afrin
AFRIN, Syria (North Press) – A Turkish-backed Syrian armed opposition group opened fire on Tuesday, on women and children while they were harvesting olive in their field in the Turkish-occupied Afrin region, northwestern Syria.
Members of Hamza group, which is affiliated with the Syrian National Army (SNA), broke into an olive trees farm in the village of Fereiriyeh, southwestern Afrin city, a local source from the armed groups told North Press.
The source added that the members of the group wanted to take the whole olive products from the women workers by force.
He pointed out that the members indiscriminately opened fire to frighten the women, who had their children with them, after they refused to give them the olive.
The incident sparked the residents’ anger, so that clashes between the villagers and the group’s members took place where the latter indiscriminately used heavy machine guns.
On November 27, Human Rights Organization in Afrin posted on its official Facebook that members of the Ahrar al-Sharqiya group kidnapped four women from the village of Baflour in Jinderis district.
Since the invasion of Afrin by Turkish forces and their affiliated armed opposition groups in 2018, over 150 women and girls have gone missing from the area, and the fates of many remain unknown.
One US-based independent researcher documents the kidnappings and disappearances of these women to raise awareness of the continuous violations happening in Afrin.
On September 15, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry published its biannual report in which it said, “During the period under review, civilians residing in the Afrin region of Aleppo Governorate witnessed an onslaught of violations perpetrated by members of the Syrian National Army as well as shelling and vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices.”
“Looting and property confiscation by the Syrian National Army in mainly Kurdish areas is rife. Whole communities and cultures are under attack. UNESCO sites have been bulldozed and looted,” the report added.