SDF arrests individual involved in burning crops in NE Syria
HASAKAH, Syria (North Press) – Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) announced on Friday arresting one of the individuals involved in setting agricultural lands on fire in the countryside of Hasakah, northeast Syria.
The SDF said in a statement, “SDF special units successfully arrested a criminal mercenary responsible for burning crops and extorting money from farmers.”
The statement added that “Muhammad Mustafa al-Khalaf,” who was born in 1985 and hailed from the village of al-Rawda in Tel Tamr, confessed to these crimes during his initial interrogation and that a relative provided him with “SIM cards and instructions.”
Al-Khalaf also obtained phone numbers of farmers, who had lands in the region, and contacted them in order to extort money from them in turn for not burning their crops, according to the statement.
Based on “cooperation of the local populace and thorough investigative efforts, our SDF special units successfully apprehended the criminal and dismantled this criminal network,” the SDF noted.
The statement revealed that the network received “instructions from entities based in the Turkish-occupied areas,” stressing that investigations are continuing until further details are revealed.
The SDF urged all people in the in northeast Syria to “cooperate and promptly report any instances of extortion or threats by terrorist and criminal gangs to the relevant security and military authorities.”
Every year at harvest time in northeast Syria, fires break out in wheat and barley crops, causing massive losses to farmers, but doers remain unknown.