The people who manage to flee from the city and villages around Afrin are telling stories of horror. Turkish-backed mercenaries are kidnapping people and asking ransom to their families for their release. 

Sources in Afrin said that now the mercenaries have begun to ask for tax payments from citizens. 

The mercenaries linked to the Turkish-backed Sultan Süleyman Shah Brigade has introduced, sources said, a tax payment from people of the village of Çeqla, in the Şiyê district, saying that the payment is needed to secure the safety of the residents. 

Local sources said that the mercenaries are requesting people to pay two thousand dollars per family and that people have one week to pay what they owe. 

Sources also reported that families who did not pay taxes were kidnapped by mercenaries and subjected to barbarous assault.

Another source from the town of Şera said that members of the Sultan Murad group have gone to Meydankê and have confiscated petrol after torturing the owner.