Turkish-backed opposition tortures detainees in Syria’s Afrin: SNHR
HASAKAH, Syria (North Press) – On Monday, the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR – a UK-based monitoring group that monitors Syrian casualties in the Syrian war) said, it fears that those detained by Turkish-backed opposition groups in Afrin, northwest Syria, to be tortured.
On April 4, Turkish-backed armed opposition groups arrested a number of women with their children, while trying to enter the Turkish territory through smuggling, local sources said.
“18 people including 14 women were arrested, and the Syrian National Army (SNA) took them to one of the detention centers in the district of Rajo, northwest Afrin,” ” the SNHR added.
The women were from Homs governorate, central Syria, and they were settling in Afrin, private sources told North Press.
“Their families have not been informed so far, and their mobile phones were confiscated so that they were prevented from contacting their families,” the SNHR noted.
The SNHR expressed its concern that the detainees be tortured and forcibly disappeared as 85% of the whole detainees.
“About 3,577 Syrian citizens are still under arrest or forcible disappearance inside the detention centers of the armed opposition groups,” the SNHR stated.
In February, the Violations Documenting Center in North Syria (VDC-NSY) documented the arrest of more than 77 people, including women and children, in Afrin, by the armed opposition groups.