A militia leader was killed on Sunday in an explosion in the Turkish occupation zone Afrin in northwest Syria. At least ten other people, including several Islamists, were injured. The explosion was caused by a mine laid by previously unknown persons on the road to Jindires district. The explosive device detonated during the passage of the vehicle of Hossein Bedra, a leading member of the jihadist militia "Faylaq al-Sham" and commander of the so-called SNA (Syrian National Army), the proxy invasion troops of Turkey.

The Afrin region has been occupied by Turkey since March 2018. Since the beginning of the occupation, human rights violations and war crimes have been on the agenda in what was once the safest region of all Syria. In addition to a classic colonial policy, Turkey continues to practice a policy of ethnic cleansing, which has driven hundreds of thousands of people from their ancestral settlements. The demographic change in favour of Turkey and its Islamist invasion troops, crimes such as kidnapping, torture, extortion and murder are happening with the de facto approval of the international community.

It is still unclear whether today's attack in Afrin was an act of retaliation or should be seen as the result of conflicts within the SNA militias. After the Turkish invasion, two groups, the Afrin Liberation Forces (HRE) and "Operation Wrath of Olives" formed in 2018, which carry out actions on the Turkish Jihadist occupation forces and have set themselves the goal of liberating Afrin from occupation. In recent weeks, however, there have also been repeated tensions between the individual occupying militias.