According to local sources, occupying forces abducted Selah Reşid Gorîlo (20) and Mihemed Xelil Hec Qenber (24) from Xilalka village in Afrin’s Bilbilê district on 12 July. Reports say that the two men had been kidnapped for lighting the Newroz fire three months ago and released in return for ransom.

After the families paid the ransom, the ‘Military Police’, the paramilitary criminal apparatus of the occupying Turkish state, kidnapped the two young men once again on 17 July in order to get ransom from their families.

On the other hand, the ‘Military Police’, a criminal network established in the occupied area, kidnapped Mihemed Hesen Seydo (40), who migrated to Aleppo with his parents, two weeks ago after returning to the village of Kil Ibo in Mabeta district.

Afrin occupied since 2018

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 Air Force 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 but occasional skirmishes between YPG/YPJ and jihadist forces on its borders. As a result, Afrin offered peaceful sanctuary to over 300,000 internally displaced people from elsewhere in Syria.