SDF welcomes US sanctions on Turkish-backed faction
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – On Thursday, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) welcomed a new US sanctions package targeting Syrian entities and figures, including Turkish-backed opposition faction, as it is accused of committing war crimes in Syria.
Yesterday, the US Department of Treasury included individuals and entities from the Syrian government and opposition to the first sanctions’ lists under Joe Biden’s administration.
For the first time, the sanctions targeted two leaders of the Turkish-backed Ahrar al-Sharqiya faction, Ahmad Ihsan Fayyad al-Hayes, known as Abu Hatim al-Shakra, and Raed Jassim al-Hayes.
In its statement, the SDF Media Center considered this development as “first step in line with the calls of human rights organizations.”
The statement hoped that the factions and their leaders would be held accountable for the crimes they committed against the population in northeast Syria and all other Syrian regions, including Idlib and Aleppo.
Ahrar al-Sharqiya is considered one of the largest military formations which is loyal to Turkey, as its commander, Abu Hatim al-Shakra and the leaders of the opposition National Army, met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in 2018.
The SDF statement called on the international community and human rights organizations to continue political and legal pressure on other similar factions and their supporters because of the crimes they committed, and to seek justice for the victims.
The faction, which the leader of al-Qaeda Abu Maria al-Qahtani had the largest role in its founding, has a long record of war crimes, especially in Afrin, Tel Abyad and Sere Kaniye (Ras al-Ain), according to reports.
The most prominent crime of the faction is the execution of the Kurdish female politician Hevrin Khalaf and the mutilation of her body, in addition to the killing of civilians and medical staff on the M4 Highway in 2019.
The SDF statement considered that despite the importance of the recent US measures, the violent level of the faction’s crimes calls for urgent international action to collect evidence and start the procedures for bringing those factions’ leaders and members to the international courts.