afrinpost– Exclusive
After Turkey and its Syrian Muslim Brotherhood militias took control of Afrin region in March 2018, the process of dismantling the train tracks began, and part of the train tracks was dismantled in the villages of Rajo sub-district, but the Turkish intelligence intervened and stopped the theft and warned against sabotaging the railway, and threatened the militias, as they wanted to keep the railway due to the historical connection the Ottoman era.
A local source reported that the militiamen of the “Faylaq Al-Sham” militia have robbed the railway tracks again as of Sunday, 15/8/2021. The operation is led by Khaldoun Medawar, nicknamed “Abu Hassan.” , adding that the rest of the broken train cars were also burned, and the dismantling process was carried out at night so as not to attract the attention of the Turkish forces, who had previously prevented the theft.
The source added that among the participants in the robbery were Salil al-Khalidi, a leader in the “Faylaq Al-Sham” militia, and Hisham, a military commander and operations officer in the same militia.
It is noteworthy that the Turkish-backed militants, who are based in the “Suleiman Hall” building – Rajo Road, after Ma’batli junction, has dismantled and robbed the railways of the Orient Express Line, which was established in 1912, near the village of “Ain Hajar Sharqi” for more than two years up to the “Hassan Meshkeh”-Kitkh bridge (3 km long), and moved it by vehicles at night, after closing all roads and under the supervision of Turkish intelligence, most likely to Turkey, where it can be used or re-manufactured.
