Government forces arrest civilians in Aleppo’s Ashrafiyah
ALEPPO, Syria (North Press) – Syrian government forces arrested a number of residents in coincidence with large-scale raids in Kurdish-majority Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafiyah neighborhoods in Aleppo, eyewitnesses said on Wednesday.
There are three checkpoints of the government forces, namely Ashrafiyah, al-Sikka, and Maghsalat al-Jazira, that link Sheikh Maqsoud with other Aleppo neighborhoods.
Sheikh Maqsoud and part of Ashrafiyah neighborhoods, northwest Aleppo, are run by a civil administration close to the Autonomous Administration of North East Syria.
Yesterday evening, the Syrian government-backed militia, al-Baqir Brigade, kidnapped a person known as Abu Shahin, a driver from Ashrafiyah neighborhood, according to eyewitnesses.
Al-Baqir militia raided a number of civilians’ homes in the Ashrafiyah, a part controlled by the Syrian government, and arrested about 13 young men, the eyewitnesses added.
The sources pointed out that the young men were taken to an unknown destination, while the Syrian security forces doubled their numbers at Ashrafiyah and al-Awared checkpoints.
Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafiyah neighborhoods are home for about 22,000 families; about 80,000 people, according to a previous statement by Badran Hamo, member of the Relations Committee of the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC).
On May 31, a rocket shell fell near the eastern Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, without causing any human or material losses, while no party has claimed responsibility.
The government members of Maghsalat al-Jazira checkpoint closed the crossing “on the pretext that the Sanitation Committee excavated the road, and only pedestrians were allowed to cross after undergoing a heavy security check,” according to eyewitnesses.
Residents of Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafiyah described the measures as “deliberate restrictions.”
The residents have to wait for about an hour until the inspection procedures are finished before they are allowed to pass.