Turkish-backed SNA factions cut down 250 trees in Syria’s Afrin
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – Turkish-backed armed opposition factions, also known as Syrian National Army (SNA), cut down 250 trees during the past few days in the Turkish-occupied city of Afrin, northern Syria.
A local source said that militants of Jaysh al-Islam, an SNA faction, cut down olive trees in the vicinity of the city of Afrin.
The city of Afrin and its villages, north of Aleppo, have been occupied by Turkish forces and the affiliated SNA factions since March 2018.
The source added that the faction cut down the trees on the sideway of the eastern entrance to the city of Afrin.
Another source said that the SNA faction’s Hamza Division cut down more than 250 forestry trees near the village of Kimar in Sherawa district, south of Afrin, under the supervision of Turkish officers under the pretext that they are close to a Turkish military base.
The Sultan Murad faction, another SNA faction, cut down more than 85 olive trees, whose age reach 40 years, in the village of Qastal on the Turkish border.
The SNA factions used to cut down trees with the aim of selling them in Idlib markets, northwest Syria, where one ton of wood amounts $150.
Afrin region has been witnessing cases of killing, kidnapping and arrest, in addition to frequent bombings, amid the inability of the factions controlling it to settle the security in the region.
Turkey occupied the Kurdish-majority city of Afrin in 2018 following a military operation called “Olive Branch” causing the displacement of more than 300.000 people of the original inhabitants.