HTS entered Syria’s Afrin after Turkish green light – SOHR
RAQQA, Syria (North Press) – On Saturday, the director of Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), Rami Abdulrahman, said that the entry of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS, formerly al-Nusra Front) to the city of Afrin, north of Aleppo Governorate in northern Syria, came after a Turkish green light.
Turkey intends to exclude weak factions and to pave the way for a possible reconciliation with Syrian government, according to Abdulrahman.
The HTS took advantage of infighting between several Turkish-backed opposition factions, also known as Syrian National Army (SNA). The intra-factional clashes took place between Hamza Division, Third Legion and Levant Front in the city of al-Bab, east of Aleppo, and then moved to Afrin and its countryside. Soon after, the HTS entered Afrin under the pretext of settling the conflict between the factions.
For days, the areas occupied by the SNA factions in Aleppo northern countryside have been witnessing fierce clashes between the SNA factions and HTS, yielding in the latter taking control over Afrin.
The entry of the HTS to Afrin came due a Turkish green light, Abdulrahman said.
What the HTS did in Jindires, Mabatli, Afrin and Kafr Janneh, was ordered by the Turkish Intelligence to exclude the weak factions that have become a burden on Turkey, the SOHR director added to North Press.
Turkey wants to deal with the factions using the HTS in case any reconciliation takes place with the Syrian government, especially that the SNA-held areas are engulfed with drug trafficking and human rights violations, Abdulrahman added.
On August 11, a demonstration took place in the city of Azaz in Aleppo northern countryside to denounce the statements made by Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu in which he called for reconciliation between the Syrian government and opposition.
Despite the SNA factions are under Turkey’s control, it is looking to exclude them from the Turkish-held areas in Syria, especially that the SNA leaders are “warlords,” Abdurrahman noted.
Some news leaks from the HTS, Abdulrahman said, say that the jihadist group would have a de-facto, undeclared control over all the SNA-held areas in northern Syria.
Since Friday midnight, Afrin has been under an uneasy calm following an agreement between the HTS and Third Legion.
Afrin, a Kurdish city in the north of Aleppo, has been under Turkey’s control since March 2018 following a Turkish military operation called “Olive Branch” which resulted in the displacement of about 300.000 people from the city and its countryside, according to SHOR.