TEL TAMR, Syria (North Press) – Significant developments, most notably the increase of violations, which human rights organizations could not document all of them, and the rise of al-Qaeda and the Islamic State Organization (ISIS) took place in 2021 in the Turkish-held areas of Sere Kaniye (Ras al-Ain) and Tel Abyad northern Syria.
In 2012, the US carried out airstrikes against ISIS in Sere Kaniye countryside, a move activists described it is a prove that Turkey is involved in supporting terrorist groups existing in Syria.
Turkey and is affiliated Syrian armed opposition factions launched a military action known as “Peace Spring Operation” against Sere Kaniye in October 2019 displacing over 300,000 people, according to human rights reports.
Murder, abduction and explosions
Statistics show incidents of killing, kidnapping and looting have scaled up in addition to worsening of living conditions and spread of unemployment in Syrian territories controlled by Turkey.
A report released on December 4 by the Documentation Office of the Euphrates Region (administrative division affiliated with the AANES that includes the areas of Kobani, Raqqa and Tel Abyad) showed increase of violations and security incidents in Tel Abyad in 2021.
Fattah Kurdo, co-chair of the Documentation Office said they have documented 150 killings, including 15 children and 25 women since the beginning of 2021.
Based on former reports published by North Press, more than 50 killings, 75 injuries of civilians, including children and women, took place in Sere Kaniye. Many people lost their lives due to infighting among armed opposition factions in the residential areas.
Other civilians died of torture in detention facilities run by the armed opposition factions. In September, a video footage of a young man identified as Hikmat Khalil al-Da’ar from Deir ez-Zor, went viral on social media. The deceased’s body showed signs of torture.
Orhan Kamal, an activist who hails from Sere Kaniye, said at least six people died under torture in Sere Kaniye and Tel Abyad since the opposition factions controlled them.
North Press, depending on local sources, documented up to 75 arrest and kidnapping incidents by armed factions in malicious ways on charges of links with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) or the US-led Global Coalition.
In 2021, the Turkish forces moved around 40 civilians to Turkey and sentenced them to 5-36 years in prison.
The factions arrested 150 people, including 40 women, in Tel Abyad. Some of them were released after paying ransoms, Kurdo said.
In February 2021, a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report read “Turkey and the Syrian National Army have arrested and illegally transferred at least 63 Syrian nationals from northeast Syria to Turkey to face trial on serious charges that could lead to life in prison”.
Worsening security and living conditions
Up to 10 explosions took place, too. The blast in March near the Civil Police station in Sere Kaniye was the most severe where 11 people were killed and 6 wounded to various types of severity.
North Press could obtain information from local sources saying that Turkish forces and their affiliated Syrian factions, with the support of experts from Turkey, excavated the archaeological hills like Tel Halaf, dating back to 6,000 years BC.
In May, the Military Police Faction, affiliated with the opposition, was accused of a mass rape of a 20-year-old young lady who hails from Raqqa city.
The lady was kidnapped in Tel Abyad while coming back from Turkey to visit her relatives in Raqqa. She remained in custody for three months on charges of dealing with the SDF.
Additionally, deteriorating living conditions and unemployment led to several protests and demonstrations in Sere Kaniye and Tel Abyad in 2021. The protesters accused the local councils, established by Turkey, of corruption.
Syrian territories held by Turkey suffer dire living conditions and inflation.
The recent fall of the Turkish currency pushed price of one barrel of heating diesel to reach 500,000 Syrian Pounds (SYP), equal to about $1,5 in Sere Kaniye and Tel Abyad. Many people started searching for alternatives in winter like burning wood and collecting nylon to burn them, too.
Systematic looting
Plunder still went on by Syrian armed opposition factions in Sere Kaniye and its countryside.
Human rights activists, media persons and locals accuse opposition factions of looting their properties. Opposition factions evacuated the industrial zone in Sere Kaniye and transferred its contents to Turkey to be sold. Moreover, they looted civilians’ houses and enforced them to leave their houses.
In late November, the local council in Sere Kaniye announced it would sell bars of aluminum in an auction. Local activists said that opposition factions legalize looting and plunder of civilians’ properties and facilitating their selling.
Hevdesti (Synergy) association said the looted goods are sold in auctions or transferred to Turkey by fences.
Hevdesti (Synergy) is a non-profit organizations including journalists, human rights activists and researchers from Sere Kaniye and Tel Abyad and aims to document the violations committed in the two cities by Syrian armed opposition factions.
Killing of al-Qaeda and ISIS leaders
Perhaps the major events in the areas of control of the Turkish forces, north Syria, during the year 2021 were the killing of two leaders of al-Qaeda and ISIS, who are internationally designated as terrorists. They were killed in the area between Sere Kaniye and Tel Abyad, which the Turkish President, Erdogan claimed establishing a “safe zone” in it.
On October 23, a US airstrike killed senior al-Qaeda leader Abdulhamid al-Matar in the countryside of Suluk town, 20 km east of Tal Abyad.
“The removal of this al-Qaeda senior leader will disrupt the terrorist organization’s ability to further plot and carry out global attacks that threaten American citizens, our partners, and innocent civilians,” US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced.
Two days later, North Press reported an informed source as saying that a drone, believed to be an American, targeted a senior leader in ISIS, Sabahi Ibrahim al-Muslih, called “Abu Hamza al-Shuhail”, in the village of Adwaniya in Sere Kaniye countryside.
“Al-Shuhail was considered one of the members of the Shura Council in ISIS, and fled from Deir ez-Zor after the Syrian Democratic Forces took control of the area,” Farhad Shami, director of the Media Center of the Syrian Democratic Forces, tweeted at the time.
ISIS flags were raised in Sere Kaniye, during a protest by residents against the French presidency’s position on cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, in October 2020.
Opposition leaders on the sanctions list
In a remarkable development, the US Department of Treasury announced on the July 28 a new package of sanctions targeting entities affiliated with the Syrian intelligence services and pro-Turkey Ahrar al-Sharqiya faction.
The US sanctioned Syrian armed group Ahrar al-Sharqiya, which operates in northern Syria, for committing numerous crimes against civilians, particularly Syrian Kurds, including unlawful killings, abductions, torture, and seizures of private property.
The leader of Ahrar al-Sharqiya, Abu Hatem Shaqra, and his faction committed crimes and grave violations of human rights, most notably the assassination of the Kurdish female politician, Hevrin Khalaf in 2019, in addition to the execution of detainees, the kidnapping of Yezidi women and children, and having former ISIS members within the ranks of his faction.