On Thursday, 5 February 2026, factions affiliated with the so-called Ministry of Defense of the Syrian Interim Authority, represented by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), arrested and tortured two Kurdish young men from the rural areas of Kobani, as part of the ongoing violations committed against civilians in northern Syria.
According to local sources, the two young men are Jassim Naqshi Ibrahim and Marwan Mohammad Mahmoud, residents of Kureik village, administratively affiliated with the predominantly Kurdish city of Kobani. The sources reported that the two were traveling from their village to Zinar al-Kurdān village to purchase bread and basic food supplies when they were stopped at a checkpoint by members of those factions.
The sources added that the armed elements confiscated the young men’s mobile phones, physically assaulted them, and subjected them to torture, before forcibly transferring them to the city of Tal Abyad. As of the date of preparation of this report, the two remain in arbitrary detention, with no precise information regarding their place of detention, no legal charges brought against them, and without being allowed to communicate with their families or to access legal counsel.
In a corroborating account, other sources stated that the arrest took place on the same Thursday, when an armed group affiliated with the same factions abducted the two young men and subjected them to torture, before forcibly transferring them at a later stage to areas under the control of those factions, including Tal Abyad, with reports also indicating that they were moved toward Ain Issa in the countryside of Raqqa.
This arrest falls within a broader pattern of serious violations committed against Kurdish civilians in the context of the military operation carried out by the forces of the Syrian Interim Authority, represented by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, against predominantly Kurdish areas. This operation began on 6 January 2026 with attacks targeting the predominantly Kurdish neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud and al-Ashrafiyah in the city of Aleppo, before the attacking forces took control of both neighborhoods on 10 January 2026.
Subsequently, the offensive expanded to include areas east of the Euphrates, where the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) lost large swathes of territory following the alliance of certain Arab tribes with the forces of the Interim Authority, particularly in the city of Raqqa and the northern countryside of Deir ez-Zor. Nevertheless, the scale and severity of violations increased markedly as military operations reached predominantly Kurdish areas, including Kobani, Hasakah, and the countryside of Qamishli.
Despite the announcement by the Syrian Democratic Forces on 30 January 2026 of a ceasefire agreement with the Syrian Interim Authority, the siege imposed on the city of Kobani remains in place, alongside continued reports of arrests and acts of torture against civilians.
The continued detention of Jassim Naqshi Ibrahim and Marwan Mohammad Mahmoud raises serious concerns regarding their physical and psychological integrity, particularly in the absence of any information indicating the opening of an independent investigation into this incident or the adoption of measures to hold those responsible accountable. This situation constitutes a grave violation of international human rights law, in particular the absolute prohibition of arbitrary detention and torture.
