According to local sources, a patrol unit of the Turkish intelligence service and the so-called “Military Police” kidnapped a civilian from Afrin.

The 32-year-old civilian, identified as Heysem Mihemed Cafer from the village of Gaze, was kidnapped outside his home in the Ashrafiyah neighborhood in the city center. The occupation forces seized Cafer’s house and expelled his family from their home.

On the other hand, the Sultan Suleiman Shah mercenaries kidnapped a civilian named Ebdo Reşîd Hemo from outside his home in the Mabata district. The invaders asked for a ransom of 5 thousand dollars in return for his release. According to reports, Ebdo Hemo had previously paid the mercenaries a 2 thousand dollar ransom in order to be able to stay in his house.

In the district of Jindires, 40-year-old Mihemed Mihemed Hebeş from the village of Bablîtê and his mother, Emine, were kidnapped.

According to the Afrin-Syrian Human Rights Organization, the Turkish state and its mercenaries kidnapped 35 citizens in July. The number of citizens abducted since the beginning of this year has reached 143, of whom 20 are women.

Since the beginning of this year, more than 15,500 trees (olive, walnut, almond, fruit trees) have been cut down. More than a thousand trees were uprooted and 70,000 hectares of wheat and barley fields were burned. On the other hand, the invaders continue to build colonial buildings in occupied Afrin.

According to data from human rights organisations, over 800 civilians have been kidnapped since the invasion of Afrin in 2018, and more than 7500 abducted. While some of these people were released in return for ransom, the fate of many remains unknown.

Afrin Canton was the westernmost canton of Rojava and North and East Syria, home to 200,000 ethnic Kurds. Though the population was overwhelmingly Kurdish, it was home to diverse religious groups including Yazidis, Alawites and Christians alongside Sunni Muslims.

On 20 January 2018, Turkey launched air strikes on 100 locations in Afrin, as the onset of an invasion they dubbed ‘Operation Olive Branch.’

The Turkish Airforce indiscriminately shelled civilians as well as YPG/YPJ positions, while a ground assault was carried out by factions and militias organised under the umbrella of the Turkish-backed National Army.

By 15 March, Turkish-backed militias had encircled Afrin city and placed it under artillery bombardment. A Turkish airstrike struck the city’s only functioning hospital, killing 16 civilians.

Civilians fled and the SDF retreated, and by 18 March Turkey was in de facto occupation of Afrin. Between 400 and 500 civilians died in the invasion, overwhelmingly as a result of Turkish bombing. Other civilians were summarily executed in the field.

Prior to the Turkish invasion, Afrin had been one of the most peaceful and secure parts of Syria, virtually never seeing combat during the civil war bar occasional skirmishes between YPG/YPJ and jihadi forces on its borders. As a result, Afrin offered peaceful sanctuary to over 300,000 internally displaced people from elsewhere in Syria.