Turkish-backed militants kill civilian in Syria’s Manbij

MANBIJ, Syria (North Press) – A civilian was killed and six others were injured in a shooting by Turkish-backed militants on Tuesday while trying to save a woman from harassment by an armed group in Syria’s northern province of Manbij, local sources said.

Shooting erupted when a group of militants harassed a woman in the village of al-Tokhar al-Kabir in the northern countryside of Manbij, which is under the control of Turkish-backed armed groups known as Euphrates Shield, local sources told North Press.

The incident raised the locals’ discontent which resulted in demonstrations against the militants, attacking the militants and burning their headquarters on the outskirts of the village, the sources added.

The injured then were transferred to a hospital in the town of Jarabulus, where a casualty named Ahmad Hamoud, who was in a critical condition, succumbed to his injuries on Thursday.  

Locals added that the shooting resulted in the burning of large areas of wheat and barley fields.

Turkish-backed Syrian opposition armed groups seized parts of the northern countryside of Manbij, including the town of Jarabulus, in March 2017 in an operation called Euphrates Shield against the Islamic State (ISIS).

This was part of a series of cross-border operations inside the Syrian territories backed by the Turkish army since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2011.