On 4 January 2026, an armed group affiliated with the Sultan Suleiman Shah Division, known as “al-Amshat,” which is one of the factions incorporated within the Ministry of Defense of the Interim Authority, carried out an arbitrary arrest operation in Afrin, northern Syria.
The victim is the Kurdish young man Hanan Abdulrahman Mustafa, 22 years old, from the village of Hikja, affiliated to the Sheikh al-Hadid (Sheh) subdistrict in the countryside of Afrin. He belongs to the Kurdish component in a region with a Kurdish majority and was residing in the city of Aleppo.
According to available information, the young man was arrested while traveling from the city of Aleppo to his village Hikja to perform the duty of offering condolences for the death of his uncle. Local sources stated that members of the faction stopped Hanan and confiscated his “Jeep” vehicle, on the pretext of finding photos of Kurdish symbols saved on his mobile phone.
This incident comes within a broader context of ongoing violations targeting the Kurdish population in the Afrin region and its countryside, where similar cases of arbitrary arrest against civilians from the Kurdish component have been documented during the recent period, carried out by various security bodies and armed groups.
In a separate incident, about a week ago, an armed group affiliated with the Ahrar al-Sharqiya faction, one of the factions formerly known as the “Syrian National Army” supported by Turkey, arrested the Kurdish young man Mohammad Khaled Blank (33 years old).
On 30 December 2025, members of the “General Security” affiliated with the Interim Authority raided the village of Darwish, affiliated to the Sharran subdistrict in the countryside of Afrin, and arrested the Kurdish young woman Hiba Amin Suleiman (23 years old), on the charge of “dealing with the Autonomous Administration.”
These practices fall within the state of security deterioration and systematic violations witnessed in the region since Turkey and armed factions loyal to it took control of Afrin on 18 March 2018, accompanied by widespread displacement of the original population, and documented cases of kidnapping, arrest, torture, and seizure of property, amid the absence of accountability and the continued prevalence of impunity.
