On the evening of Thursday, 8 January 2026, a group of armed men affiliated with the forces of the interim authority “Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham” carried out the liquidation of two Kurdish citizens who were working as part of the staff of Osman Hospital in the Ashrafieh neighborhood of Aleppo city, northern Syria. According to available information, armed elements entered the hospital, where they bound the two victims before executing them summarily by gunfire inside the hospital, leading to their immediate death. Testimonies indicate that the liquidation took place during the early morning hours.
The two victims are Adnan Aref Osman, the brother of the director of Osman Hospital, and Ali Hanif. They originate from the village of Ain al-Hajar Saghir in the countryside of Afrin. The two victims belong to the Kurdish component and were working in the health sector within the same hospital.
On the same day, 8 January 2026, a video clip circulated showing fighters affiliated with the Ministry of Defense of the interim authority, emanating from “Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham,” dragging a person down a staircase in one of the Kurdish neighborhoods of Aleppo city, while directing degrading insults at him, including the phrase “drag the pig.” No confirmed information was available as to whether the person appearing in the clip was a civilian or a military member; however, the incident in itself constitutes a grave violation of human dignity and basic human rights.
These incidents come amid a broad military escalation witnessed in the Kurdish neighborhoods of Aleppo city, particularly the Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh neighborhoods, since Tuesday, 6 January 2026, during which these neighborhoods were subjected to intense and continuous shelling. The pace of shelling escalated on the morning of Thursday, 8 January 2026, coinciding with the interim authority’s forces publishing maps showing residential locations in the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood that were designated as targets for shelling, under the pretext that shelling operations were being launched from them toward Aleppo city neighborhoods and their residents by the “Syrian Democratic Forces.”
In the same context, the “Rights Monitor” platform – the Human Rights Monitor platform in Syria – documented the issuance of public and explicit calls by figures supportive of the interim authority and “Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham” that incite the killing of prisoners of war in the predominantly Kurdish Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh neighborhoods of Aleppo city, in a clear violation of the provisions of the Geneva Conventions and international humanitarian law related to the protection of prisoners of war.
The execution of health workers inside a medical facility, alongside practices of dragging and public incitement to killing, constitute dangerous indicators of the commission of serious violations of international humanitarian law, particularly with regard to the protection of civilians, health-sector workers, and prisoners of war, and the preservation of their human dignity. These acts fall within conduct that may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity in the context of the ongoing armed conflict.
