Turkish-backed opposition blackmail returnees through crossing to Kurdish-held areas in Syria’s Manbij
MANBIJ, Syria (North Press) –SinceAutonomous Administration of North East Syria (AANES) has re-opened Aoun al-Dadat crossing with Turkish-led Euphrates Shield-held areas on Wednesday 16, Turkish-backed opposition armed groups started extorting people who would like to cross to AANES areas.
AANES reopened the crossing in order to allow people from north east Syria to return back to their areas, and also for people on the other side to cross to eastern Euphrates areas, but Turkish-backed opposition armed groups curbed their return unless they paid fines, as well as closed the crossing.
Muhammad Ahamad, (A pseudonym from Manbij) spent about 20 days in the outdoors in Euphrates Shield-held areas near the crossing, in order to be allowed to return to Manbij.
Ahmad was in a visit to Turkey, but Turkish-backed military police closed the crossing, so he was not allowed to return to his city.
An opposition member suggested helping him to enter to Manbij through a smuggling rout by circumvention the checkpoint of the opposition military police for SYP 75.000, and he accepted the offer, according to Ahmad.
Ahmad had to walk until he came to the crossing after the member drove him on the motorbike to the last point of the Turkish-backed opposition armed groups.
“As soon as I arrived to the crossing point, I immediately passed after I underwent to coronavirus testing and the preventative measures,” he stated.
Hassan Muhammad, the administrator in the crossing, said that a small number, of those stuck in opposition-held areas, has passed through the crossing so far.
Those, who managed to pass through the crossing, paid fines to Turkish-backed opposition groups to be allowed to reach the crossing, Muhammad told North Press.
“However trading in the crossing continued with no restricts, the uploaded trucks interred to the crossing’s yard to be unloaded and returned to where they came from,” he stated.
Yasser Khalifa, the head of the medical team of checking the arrivals through the crossing, supervises the testing and the implementation of the preventative measures.
In addition to supervising sterilization operations of all coming vehicles before entering the yard to unload their cargo.
The suspects were transported to 15-day quarantine in a village south Manbij city, Khalifa said.
It’s noteworthy that Turkish-backed opposition groups had targeted Aoun al-Dadat village wounding two civilians.
Civilians accuse Turkish-backed opposition armed groups of shelling the village in order to curb the travelling through the crossing, and frighten civilians to force them to search for smuggling routes, which provide them with big benefits.