According to a report by Rojava based Hawar News Agency (ANHA) basing on sources from Afrin’s Bilbile district, 800 families from the so-called ‘Northern Eagles’ and ‘Sultan Murad’ mercenary groups have been brought from Idlib and settled in Afrin’s Bilbile district centre and the villages of Bêlan, Qurnê, Hiyame, Seriya, Bîkê, Qestelê Xidirya and Hesen Dêra.

According to initial reports, 55 mercenary families have been brought to Tirindê village, 2 to Istêr village, 240 to Eyndarê village, 85 to Kifêrê village, 24 to Coqê village, 62 to Babilêtê village and 45 to Til Tewîl village that administratively belong to the Afrin city centre.

In the Sherawa district, 86 families have been settled in Birc Heyder village, 66 in Îska village and 38 in Basûtê villages, while 57 others were settled in Kefer Zêtê village of Jindires.

While the ethnic cleansing and demographic change continue on one hand, residents in the region are terrorized on the other hand.

Local sources report increasingly ongoing acts of abduction against civilians in occupied areas. According to sources in the Rajo district, 35-year-old civilian İzeddin Enwer was abducted from the village of Hesen Kilkawî two weeks ago and his family was asked to pay 300,000 Syrian Lira ransom.

On February 1, civilians Ayhan Mihemed Mamo and Heysem Mihemed Mamo were abducted from the village of Heyama, in Rajo, and their aftermath is unknown.

Turkish-backed mercenaries kidnapped civilian Said Abu Majid from his village, Edmana, in Rajo in November. The mercenaries demanded 20 million Syrian liras from his relatives. The ransom was handed over at the end of the week, but the man was apparently murdered immediately afterwards. His entire body showed signs of massive violence, some of which were still fresh when his lifeless body was found in Mabeta district two days ago.

Afrin has been under the occupation of the Turkish state and its mercenary allies for two years now. The attacks of the Turkish state against Afrin began on 20 January 2018 and the invasion of the city was carried out on 18 March 2018. Since the invasion, war crimes have been systematically committed in the region. Almost every day, crimes such as the confiscation of property belonging to local people, kidnapping of civilians for ransom, torture or executions are carried out in addition to ongoing attacks.

According to the Afrin Human Rights Organisation Afrin, more than 6,000 cases of kidnapping have been recorded in the region in the last two years. In about 3,300 of these cases, there is currently no information on where the victims are being held or what their condition is like. In many cases, bodies of abductees are found at the roadside. Many of them are marked by torture.

The occupation forces controlled by Ankara use the abductions to extort ransoms. This method has become a lucrative source of income. At least 500 cases of ransom handovers have been reported so far. Turkish-backed militias demand between 3,000 and 100,000 euros, depending on the ability of the victims' relatives to pay.

Since the invasion of the region, hundreds of thousands were displaced from home and tens of thousands of mercenary families have been settled in the houses, fields, villages and towns seized from the local people.