"At exactly 6:00 pm, Abu Amsha, accompanied by about 15 gunmen, brutally assaulted my cousin Ahmed Suleiman Shekho, which resulted in severe injuries. He is now bedridden and unable to move," Mustafa Shekho, a human rights activist and the victim's cousin, told Rudaw.
According to Mustafa, the real motive behind the attack was the perceived support of local residents, including his cousin, for Syrian state security forces when they entered the area. “This provoked Abu Amsha and his armed group, leading them to retaliate against the locals.”
“They also hurled offensive insults at him related to Mazloum Abdi [commander of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces] and Ahmed Al-Sharaa [the interim president of Syria],” Mustafa added.
Abu Amsha is the leader of the Turkish-backed Suleiman Shah Brigade, also known as al-Amshat, which is sanctioned by Washington for "serious human rights abuses" in the Afrin region.
Turkey launched Operation Olive Branch in March 2018, capturing Afrin from the People’s Protection Units - the backbone of the SDF - and placing it under the control of Turkish-backed armed groups, including the Suleiman Shah Brigade. Since then, these groups have operated with significant impunity.
Sharaa visited Afrin in mid-February and met with local residents, days after the Syrian security forces effectively entered the city. “He pledged to remove armed groups and put an end to human rights violations,” a representative of the Kurdish National Council (ENKS/KNC) who attended the meeting told Rudaw at the time.
Mustafa emphasized that the family will not drop the case and is determined to seek justice. “We have reported the assault to the General Security Forces, and they have launched an official investigation.”
As part of the inquiry, a delegation from the General Security visited Ahmed’s home on Sunday evening to assess his condition. Amshat gunmen reportedly reacted by firing shots, trying to intimidate the locals and obstruct the investigation.
In 2023, the US Treasury accused the Suleiman Shah Brigade of subjecting civilians in Afrin to “abductions and extortion” and targeting Kurdish residents, noting that many people “are subjected to harassment, abduction, and other abuses until they are forced to abandon their homes or pay large ransoms for return of their property or family members.”
Reports by international watchdogs, including Amnesty International and the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), documented in 2018 that armed groups committed numerous human rights violations, such as extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests, sexual violence, kidnappings, looting of agricultural crops, and extortion.
