afrinpost-Exclusive
A violent exchange of gunfire occurred near the city of Mare’ in northern Aleppo, resulting in the deaths of three militants and injuries to four others from a military faction associated with the Sultan Murad Division, backed by Ankara and led by Hamza Al-Shaker. The clash involved elements from the Sultan Murad Division and the military police militia.
According to afrinpost correspondent, the dispute arose between a military group from Atarib, affiliated with the Sultan Murad Division, and the commander Hamza Al-Shaker over smuggling profits and delayed payments to the division’s members in the city of Al-Bab.
The situation escalated when individuals from Atarib threatened to expose the commander on social media platforms and disclose information about the smuggling operations conducted by Hamza Al-Shaker if they were not granted a share of the profits and their salaries were not paid. This led to an exchange of offensive remarks between the parties involved.
The correspondent added that the Atarib group headed towards the village of Basuta in the Shara district of the occupied city of Afrin. However, the Sultan Murad Division had already alerted the checkpoints of the military police militia about the armed individuals and their vehicle, urging the checkpoints to apprehend them on charges of drug trafficking and smuggling humans to areas controlled by the Syrian government forces in Aleppo.
Upon reaching a checkpoint near the city of Al-Ra’i in northern Aleppo, the checkpoint personnel requested that the militants surrender themselves based on an order from their superiors. However, they refused, leading to clashes between the two sides. As a result, Abd al-Malik Khalasi from Kafr Nuran, Abd al-Rahman Aref from Al-Twameh in the Atarib region, and Abdullah Waleed al-Nayif from the Hama countryside were killed.
Four other militants sustained severe injuries, one of whom was immediately transferred to Turkish hospitals for urgent treatment, while another was taken to Al-Ra’i hospitals, where he underwent emergency surgery for a gunshot wound to his leg. The remaining individuals were later transferred to the prisons of the military police militia in the city of Al-Bab
