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The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces arrested approximately 200 male civilians, including children, during raids in Hasaka province of Syria between Friday and Sunday, according to Fars News report. According to the report, the detained civilians were forced to join the ranks of People's Protection Units (YPG), the predominantly-Kurdish militia that comprises the core of multinational SDF.
The raids are said to be in line with the SDF policy of forced mobilization, despite protests among the local population.
The SDF also conducted raids in Raqqa province, arresting dozens of civilians.
On Thursday, SDF forces opened fire on residents of al-Hawl Refugee Camp located in southeastern Hasaka, some 15 km from the Iraqi border, according to Fars. The militants opened fire on a group of women and children who tried to escape the refugee camp due to its unbearable humanitarian conditions.
An undisclosed number of civilians died during the attack; several residents of the camp who attempted to flee were incarcerated, Fars reported citing activists in Hasaka.
The activists told reporters that the SDF imposed tight security measures around the camp, effectively taking it under siege. According to the activists, residents of the camp are in dire need of water, food and medical treatment, which can be obtained only outside the camp.
SDF treatment of civilians has sparked protests among the province's population. On Wednesday, protesters burned down several SDF security centres across the city of Hasaka, al-Watan newspaper reported. According to the newspaper, the protests began after the SDF killed a young man who resisted forced recruitment.
The SDF reportedly dispatched reinforcements to the region, amid the rising unrest in Hasaka.
The Kurdish forces control a large part of Syria northeast of the Euphrates plus the territory around the city of Manbij. Damascus considers the US-backed SDF illegal.
Syria has been in a state of civil war since 2011, with forces backing the country's leader, President Bashar al-Assad, fighting numerous opposition groups backed by Western states, as well as militants and terrorist organisations including Daesh - a terrorist quasi-state, outlawed in a number of countries.
Reader Comments
Like the Afghanistan plan of bringing back the youth from Pakistan and forcing them into military camps, the plan for the displaced persons camp is to force conscription into the US backed military plan to divide Syria.
The families are held hostage by limited food and zero opportunities to leave. The UN obviously supports this as it has many times ignored pleas to allow the families to leave to resettle and rebuilt their lives and homes.
Decades ago I did a college paper on the increasing civilian fatalities from our world wars and we now have come full circle back to the historical use of people being rounded up and used to fight pointless battles.
Guess what? with the growth of the military ornamentation and enlistment, there was less will to throw away the established and therefore powerful group's lives. There developed the 'flower' wars and even the battles biblically reputed to have been settled between a strongman from each opposing forces. The remote murders by drones is emblematic of our times where public lives are throw aways and hidden from public revelation.
One wonders if public pressure actually drove the military choice of individual confrontation instead of public slaughter. Wasn't the Olympics a choice to identify successes without pointless slaughter?