The people fleeing the invasion of Shehba Canton by mercenary groups loyal to Turkey are also under attack. Turkish-backed mercenaries deliberately attacked a vehicle belonging to a refugee family at the Şêxan junction in Aleppo. 24-year-old Hesen Mursil and his father Cemal were killed, while his mother and sister were seriously injured. They are being treated in a hospital in the besieged, self-administered district of Sheikh Maqsoud (Şêxmeqsûd). 

The family are internally displaced persons from Afrin who sought protection in the canton of Shehba after the Turkish invasion of 2018. As a result of the invasion of Shehba, there are currently around 200,000 people on the move to the self-administered regions in the east and north of Syria.

The attack on the family is just the tip of the iceberg of the mercenaries' abuses. The ANHA news agency reported that a married couple had been attacked by Turkish-backed mercenaries in the now occupied Tel Rifat. Civilian Ehmed Hiso was killed and his wife was seriously injured and taken to an unknown location.

The jihadists are also resorting to abductions and hostage-taking. It was reported that the jihadist alliance ‘Syrian National Army’ (SNA) had taken people hostage from the Kurdish districts of Aleppo and abducted them to the Turkish occupation zone.