TEL TAMR, Syria (North Press) – During September, the two cities of Sere Kaniye (Ras al-Ain) and Tel Abyad, which are run by Turkish forces and Turkish-backed armed Syrian factions, witnessed more kidnappings, explosions, and killing.
For two years, the two areas, which are located in Syria’s northeast, have been witnessing security chaos deteriorating the humanitarian situation more and more amidst the silence of Turkish authorities regarding crimes committed by the factions.
The Turkish forces and the Turkish-backed factions have been running Sere Kaniye and Tel Abyad since late 2019 following an attack displacing thousands of people.
Security chaos
The city of Sere Kaniye witnessed different explosions during September reporting casualties.
On September 8, two successive IED explosions shacked the neighborhood of al-Kana’s and the main entrance of a market near a security checkpoint that belonged to the factions.
The explosion left a casualty and several wounded in addition to material loses.
On September 13, militants of al-Hamza faction killed the civilian Muhammad al-Ismail, a member of Abu Sha’aban clan, raising resentment among the clan members against what they described as gangs.
Clashes erupted between the clan and militants of the armed faction in the villages of al-Moqran and Umm Azem, west the city, after that notables of the clan released a statement demanding the expulsion of the aforementioned faction from the area.
“We put sanctions on Ahrar al-Sharqiya faction, which is active in north Syria, and two of its leaders for violations of the rights of civilians and systematic assaults on the Syrian Kurds, including kidnappings, displacement, torture, seizure of property and murder,” the US Department of the Treasury said in a statement, in August.
During September, the series of explosions had continued. On September 21, local sources told North Press that an IED exploded in a house in the town of Tel Halaf, in the countryside of Sere Kaniye, reporting material loses.
In the same day, a sound bomb thrown by one of the militants exploded near Produce market, causing material damage to the place.
Successive clashes
A day later, local sources told North Press that fierce clashes took place between al-Sultan Murad faction and Ahrar al-Sharqiya in the villages of Lilan and al-Arba’in, west of Tel Tamr town.
“A dispute arose over sites switching, which resulted in at least three casualties and several other wounded. The clashes did not stop before the Turkish forces intervened,” according to the source.
The successive clashes among the factions caused panic and fear among residents, according to the same source.
The source stressed that as a result of the lack of security and job opportunities, many residents are thinking of immigrating to other areas in northeast Syria that are not hold by Turkish-backed factions.
On September 28, violent clashes took place between two groups of al-Mutasim division in several neighborhoods inside the city where both parties used machine guns and RPGs.
During the clashes, which lasted for more than five hours, more than ten militants died and about 20 others were wounded some of which had critical wounds, according to exclusive sources from the city.
This took place two days after another infighting erupted between the militants of civil police and military police in the city.
Brutal torture
a video footage, which was one of the most brutal scenes in the Sere Kaniye during September and was circulated on social media, showed the body of Hikmat Khalil al-Da’ar, who hails from Deir ez-Zor, bearing signs of brutal torture after he was detained in the prisons of the opposition factions.
Despite having signs of torture on his body, Syrian National Army spokesman, Youssef al-Hamoud denied, in a statement to North Press, that al-Da’ar died under torture and that the cause of death was “due to high blood sugar” during the detention in one of their prisons.
Meanwhile, Orhan Kamal, a media activist working in human rights field in northeast Syria, pointed out that torture is a normal thing in the prisons of the Turkish-backed factions.
“Since the factions took control over the two cities, six people in Sere Kaniye and Tel Abyad were killed under torture,” he said.
Civilians’ kidnapping
In light of lack of security in the Turkish-held areas, kidnapping is also a frequent phenomenon that takes place periodically and raises fears among residents of the two areas.
In early September, the military police that is affiliated with the factions arrested five notables from Abu Assaf clan in the countryside of Tel Abyad, as a result of releasing two contradicting statements by the clan on their loyalty to Turkish forces and the factions.
On September 19, a checkpoint belonging to a faction of Turkish-backed armed Syrian factions kidnapped a girl, a woman with her two children from the town of al-Ali Bajiliya in Tel Abyad whil there were passing through the checkpoint, a local source told North Press.
Militants of the faction at Umm al-Kharatim checkpoint, which belongs to Turkish-backed faction of Ahrar al-Sharqiya, near the town kidnapped 17-year-old Kawthar al-Abed, 35-year-old Fatima Mustafa, and her two children while passing through the checkpoint at different times.
The kidnapped individuals hail from al-Ali Bajiliya village from the Abu Assaf clan.
Two days later, Turkish-backed armed Syrian factions and members of Turkish intelligence arrested seven notables and elderly people one of whom is a cancer patient, from their homes in a raid late at night, according to a source from the town of Ali Bajliya, 30 kilometers south of Tel Abyad., north Syria.
The arrested individuals are “Ismail Issa al-Mosa, Saleh Khalil al-Hemish, Khalil Rahil al-Hawash, Younis Muhammad Jasim, Mustafa Ahmed al-Mahmud, Sarhan Sheikh Ahmed, and Jasim Sheikh Ahmed,” the source told North Press.
Most of the arrested individuals hail from the Abu Assaf and Abu Khamis clans, according to the source.