Evacuations from Shehba continue

After an interruption in the evacuations from the besieged Afrin-Shehba canton, numerous people left the region occupied by jihadists on Saturday. Fifty buses brought over a thousand civilians from villages in the district of Shêrawa, southeast of Afrin city, according to the authorities of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES).

The vehicles had arrived on Wednesday at a collection point in the self-governing town of Ehdas, a few kilometres north of Aleppo, to transport the trapped population to safe areas. The Turkish-backed jihadist alliance Syrian National Army (SNA) had prevented the evacuation previously agreed by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) with the al-Qaeda affiliate Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).

Meanwhile, the 50 vehicles are on their way to Tabqa, Raqqa and other cities in the AANES region. On board are residents of the villages of Ziyaret, Gundê Mezin, Eqîbê, Bênê and Dêr Cemal (Dayr al-Jimal), including women, children, the sick and the injured. Thousands more people are still waiting to leave Shehba in freezing temperatures. On Sunday, more civilians are to be brought from the occupation zone to the autonomous region. Tens of thousands of displaced people have already arrived in northern and eastern Syria, most of them from Tel Rifat.

Until a few days ago, Tel Rifat was the centre of the Afrin-Shehba Canton. For about a week now, the city and surrounding towns have been under occupation by the SNA. The jihadist proxy force of NATO member Turkey launched an offensive against the AANES about a week ago, while its ‘big brother’ HTS (Hayat Tahrir al-Sham) launched a major attack against the Syrian regime. The Afrin-Shehba People’s Assembly decided to evacuate the region to prevent massacres of the population. Nevertheless, there are reports of crimes against humanity such as looting, abductions and executions by Turkish-backed mercenaries.