afrinpost-exclusive
Over the past Saturday and Sunday, residents of the village of Al-Ahdath in the Shahba region of northern Aleppo, mostly displaced individuals from Afrin, endured fear and terror due to atrocities committed by the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) militias.
The violence began with the entry of the “Joint Forces” militia, part of the “Dawn of Freedom” operations room, into intense clashes with the Afrin Liberation Forces on the outskirts of the village. The following day, these militias infiltrated parts of the village, committing war crimes, including murder, mutilation of bodies, and looting of civilian property.
One witness described a horrific scene where the bodies of Afrin Liberation Forces fighters were mutilated. Nearby, in a storage facility for food supplies, four civilians were found dead. Among them was “Abdo,” a former local council leader, and “Fawzi” from the village of Shitka, along with two unidentified victims. The witness confirmed that the bodies were brutally defiled, with the victims’ eyes gouged out.
On the same night, gunfire and explosions echoed around Al-Ahdath and the Sheikh Najjar Industrial Zone. This prompted many residents to pack their belongings and flee in their vehicles. Nasreen, a displaced mother of two, spent the night in her car with her children, hoping to join an evacuation convoy heading toward Tabqa.
Nasreen witnessed the militias looting homes and preventing families from retrieving their belongings. She also recounted a harrowing scene where three young men from Afrin were shot and killed for not responding quickly enough to the militia’s calls. The incident left residents terrified for their lives, and by the next day, many had fled, though reports of missing persons and abductions continued.
In the town of Fafin, militias reportedly massacred seven workers at an automobile repair facility. Witnesses claim the bodies were dismembered.
In Tel Qarrah, families witnessed the public decapitation of a young man, which caused many to flee in panic toward the Tabqa-bound convoy.
In another gruesome incident, a man from Afrin shared a video describing the killing of his wife. He discovered her decapitated body in their home, with her head placed on the pillow where she had been sleeping, while their three children were present in the same room.
These accounts highlight the involvement of the Syrian National Army and the “Dawn of Freedom” operation leaders in committing severe war crimes in the region. There is an urgent need to collect evidence, document these violations, and present them to international bodies for accountability.
