According to the human rights organization Afrin-Syria, 18-year-old Mihemed Mistefa Yusif was found hanged from a walnut tree in front of his house in the village of Mêrkan in Mabeta district of Afrin. His family had moved to Mêrkan after the Turkish-backed militia Liwa Samarkand confiscated their house in Hec Qasim.

According to local sources, the young Kurd was killed by the occupying forces because he did not want to be recruited as a Turkish mercenary for a mission in Libya. He had previously been put under pressure together with Ebdo Şêxo, a youngster from Rota.

Turkey has trained thousands of mercenaries from Syria, mainly Arabs and Turkmen, and sent them to Libya in support of the Tripoli government controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood. In June, as many as 7,000 proxies from Turkey were named in Libya. A large proportion were recruited within the predominantly Turkmen militias "Sultan Murad" and "Suleiman Shah" and the Arab-dominated Sham front. At the beginning of June, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported that some 3,000 jihadists had been trained in Turkey for the Libyan mission. Another statement made at the time said that 339 mercenaries sent by Turkey had died in Libya.