ALEPPO, Syria (North Press) – On Friday, with the approval of government security services in Aleppo, northern Syria, the Socialist Unionist Party mobilized residents and children from several villages near the Autonomous Administration- held area in Manbij and led them to a berm on a contact line to show it was like a spontaneous protest against the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
North Press obtained photos, videos, and audio recordings from the village of Tel Aswad in the eastern countryside of Aleppo (20 km south of Manbij city), revealing that the participants were prompted to portray the protest as “popular and spontaneous.”
The protesters were taken to the village by the organizers on green buses which were previously used by the regime to deport opposition members and their families from different Syrian areas to northern Syria.
The Socialist Unionist Party is one of the National Progressive Front parties allied with the ruling Ba’ath Party, and it had a “candidate” in the presidential elections last May, Abdullah Abdullah, who comes from Aleppo and is a member of the party’s political bureau.
Although Abdullah and the other candidate received less than 5 percent of the vote in the elections, Syrian President Bashar Assad appointed him as a minister in the new government headed by Hussein Arnous last August.
In one of the recordings, one of the organizers tells the crowd before they leave: “Although we’ve planned this protest, we must show it as spontaneous and popular.”
In order to protect the source, North Press did not publish the audio recording; however, the attached photos and videos show green buses in the village, tents, equipment and loudspeakers ready at the residents’ meeting place.
On May 31, protests began northeast of Manbij, during which unknown individuals opened fire in the city of Manbij and the main road to the village of al-Hodhud, which led to the death of a young man and the wounding of three others, according to the media of the Manbij Military Council.
At the time, the Manbij Military and Civil Council (within the Autonomous Administration and the Syrian Democratic Forces) accused government agencies and their loyalists of trying to stir up strife and destabilize the city and its countryside.
On June 2, a joint statement was issued by the Manbij Military Council and the Autonomous Administration, and the sheikhs and notables of Manbij tribes, on referring the self-defense issue in Manbij to discussion and study. It also stated releasing all detainees participating in the protests, and forming an investigation committee to hold accountable those responsible for shooting the protesters.
This morning, the Autonomous Administration exempted those born in 1990-1997 from military conscription in all the areas it administers.
A video clip shows young children (some of whom are less than ten years old) were brought yesterday to a contact point south of Manbij to raise anti-Syrian Democratic Forces slogans written on papers, in addition to the appearance of members of the Socialist Unionist Party at the site of the event.
At the end of the video, it appears that a dispute erupted between the organizers and participants, including soldiers, at the protest site near the berm separating the two areas under the control of the Syrian government and the Autonomous Administration.
The source said that the dispute was because participants were wondering who pushed residents and children to the front line and dangerous points.