The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported that Ahrar al-Sharqiya and the Hamza Division militia groups, which are supported by Ankara, clashed in Afrin’s Jandaris city “over a dispute on a piece of land.”
The UK-based war monitor added that at least six civilians were injured in the clashes.
Several opposition news outlets reported the infighting, with some saying heavy and medium weapons were used in the clashes.
Afrin is a Kurdish city that was taken over by Turkey and Turkish-backed Syrian rebels in a military operation against Kurdish fighters of the People’s Protection Units (YPG) in 2018. Most of the Kurdish population fled and Turkish authorities resettled Arabs displaced from elsewhere in Syria into their vacated homes.
Human rights groups and the United Nations have published multiple reports detailing arbitrary arrests, detention, and pillaging, among other violations committed against Afrin’s Kurdish population and they hold Ankara responsible.
Infighting between the members of the Ankara-aligned so-called Syrian National Army (SNA) is not something new. There have been clashes between members of the military umbrella dozens of times over land control.
Washington has sanctioned several Turkey-backed militia groups, including Hamza Division, over human rights violations committed against Afrin residents.
The US Department of the Treasury in August accused the Hamza Division of operating detention facilities “in which it houses those it has abducted for extended periods of time. During their imprisonment, victims are held for ransom, often suffering sexual abuse at the hands of Hamza Division fighters.”
