US sanctions two Turkey-backed Syrian militias and their leaders

By AP 17 August 2023, 8:23 pm

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Illustrative: Displaced Syrians ride in the back of a truck towards the Deir al-Ballut checkpoint to return to their villages in Afrin's countryside in the northern Syrian province of Aleppo, along the border with Turkey, on April 22, 2020. (Rami al Sayed/AFP)

The United States announces sanctions on two Turkey-backed Syrian militias and the groups’ leaders accused of human rights abuses in Syria’s northwestern, opposition-held enclave.

The groups are operating in the town of Afrin, which has been under Turkish-backed opposition forces since 2018, following an Ankara-backed military operation. That offensive pushed Syrian Kurdish fighters and thousands of Kurdish residents from the area.

The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctions The Suleiman Shah Brigade and The Hamza Division, as well as their leaders, Mohammad Hussein al-Jasim, Walid Hussein al-Jasim, and Sayf Boulad Abu Bakr.

The Suleiman Shah Brigade is accused of abductions and extortion of residents, especially Afrin’s Kurdish residents, to force them to abandon their homes and flee or to “pay large ransoms for return of their property or family members.” The Treasury says The Hamza Division is also involved in running detention centers where it held abducted victims for ransom who were tortured and sexually abused.