Syria
People taking to the streets of Afrin, northwest Syria on March 21, 2023 to protest the killings of four Kurdish citizens. Photo: SOHR
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The autonomous Syrian Kurdish administration in northeast Syria (Rojava) condemned Tuesday the killing of four Kurdish citizens in the rebel-held town of Jindires near Afrin in the country’s northwest by a Turkish-backed militia as they were celebrating Newroz.
Turkish-backed fighters of the Ahrar al-Sharqiya armed militia opened gunfire on a Kurdish family celebrating the Kurdish New Year – Newroz – in Jindires on Monday, killing at least four people, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) and a Kurdish human rights lawyer.
“We condemn this horrific and heinous act of hatred and malice, and we call on the international community, human rights organizations, and the United Nations Security Coucil to find out the reasons for this heinous crime and its circumstances,” the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) said in a statement.
The family was targeted as they were attempting to light a bonfire to celebrate the Newroz occasion.
Hundreds of protestors took to the streets of Jindires on Tuesday to protest the killings while waving the Kurdish flag as burial processions commenced.
In the statement, AANES urged “the need to hold the perpetrator and those behind him accountable.”
Jindires was seized by Turkey and Turkish-backed forces in 2018 during an operation to drive Kurdish forces of the People’s Protection Units (YPG) from the Afrin area.
The Ahrar al-Sharqiya militia is known for various human rights violations and assassinations against Kurds in the country.
Two years ago, the US Treasury sanctioned the militia group accused of assassinating Kurdish female politician Hevrin Khalaf in 2019. The group has been accused of having committed crimes that disproportionately target Syrian Kurds alongside numerous other crimes such as seizures of private property and recruitment of former Islamic State (ISIS) members.
By Azhi Rasul
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