(Zaman Al Wasl)- The Syrian National Army has arrested 15 members of Al-Hamza Division, key unit in the Turkish-backed forces, who threatened Kurdish detainees with sexual assault in the border town of Ras al-Ayn northern Syria, activists told Zaman al-Wasl Thursday.
A former detainee at Al-Manajir Checkpoint said that the responsible of the checkpoint, Abu Samer al-Shamali, oversaw the torture of 12 detainees on various charges, including working for the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) and Asayiş militias.
The SNA fighters have been blamed for a growing ledger of abuses against the local population, residents say, undermining Turkey’s stated goal of creating a “safe zone” for civilians, according to the Washington Post.
The detainee confirmed that al-Shamali’s comrades had threatened them with sexual assault as means to extract confessions from detainees, who were completely stripped of their clothes, including a child (A.H.) under the age of 18 believed to have been actually raped. Four detainees filed a complaint with the military police after they were transferred to Ras al-Ayn, leading to the arrest of 15 members.
Turkey and the National Syrian Army launched a cross-border military offensive into neighboring Syria on Oct. 9 with the aim of pushing the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an amalgam of Kurdish-led militias, away from its border.
The operation that grabbed a 120-kilometre-long (70-mile) swathe of Syrian land along the frontier, has left hundreds dead and caused 300,000 people to flee their homes mostly from Ras al-Ayn.
During the past two days, around 20 families have been displaced from areas controlled by Al-Hamza Division due to mounting abuses, robbery and looting, moving illegally to Turkish territory through Aziziyah and Rajm Unwa border crossings.
Local activists have discussed the intervention of Ahrar al-Sharqiya rebel group to expel Al-Hamza division from Umm al-Asafir near Al-Manajir and south of Ras al-Ayn, after the residents of the region have protested their presence there.
Last week, another group of Al-Hamza Division has tortured a telecommunication engineer refused to unlock smart phones 'confiscated' from the residents of Ras al-Ayn town, source told Zaman al-Wasl.
The owner of mobiles store said he was subjected to torture, severe beatings, and by Hamza Division fighters for three days after he refused to unlock stolen smartphones.
People of the border town went back to using old mobile phones for communication, after smartphones were confiscated and their owners tortured, under the pretext of having pictures of relatives recruited by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units.
The Syrian National Army is an umbrella group in northern Syria consisting of an assortment of rebel forces. Many of the group’s factions, made up largely of Syrian Arab fighters, had already fought at Turkey’s behest in two previous military operations over the past three years,
Eight years of war in Syria have killed 560,000 people and driven half the pre-war population of 22 million from their homes, including more than 6 million as refugees to neighbouring countries.
Zaman Al Wasl
Comments About This Article
Please fill the fields below.