The Human Rights Organization Afrin-Syria announced that a citizen named Mihemed Ehmed Derwîş (55) was killed by two masked and armed men in the village of Burc Ebdalo, near the district of Sherawa.
The organization stated that the incident took place yesterday evening: “Mihemed and his wife were eating dinner in a tent in their garden when two masked and armed assailants raided the tent and shot Mihemed before fleeing the scene.”
According to the information available, Mihemed Derwîş was taken to a hospital in Aleppo with injuries, but succumbed to his injuries.
On Wednesday, November 5, a man named Shukri Ahmed Oso (65) from the village of Keferzita was also killed by armed forces.
Afrin occupied since 2018
Afrin Canton was the westernmost canton of Rojava and North and East Syria, home to 200,000 ethnic Kurds. Though the population was overwhelmingly Kurdish, it was home to diverse religious groups, including Yazidis, Alawites and Christians, alongside Sunni Muslims.
On 20 January 2018, Turkey launched air strikes on 100 locations in Afrin, as the onset of an invasion they dubbed ‘Operation Olive Branch.’
The Turkish Air Force indiscriminately shelled civilians as well as YPG/YPJ positions, while a ground assault was carried out by factions and militias organised under the umbrella of the Turkish-backed National Army.
By 15 March, Turkish-backed militias had encircled Afrin city and placed it under artillery bombardment. A Turkish airstrike struck the city’s only functioning hospital, killing 16 civilians.
Civilians fled and the SDF retreated, and by 18 March Turkey was in de facto occupation of Afrin. Between 400 and 500 civilians died in the invasion, overwhelmingly as a result of Turkish bombing. Other civilians were summarily executed in the field.
Prior to the Turkish invasion, Afrin had been one of the most peaceful and secure parts of Syria, virtually never seeing combat during the civil war but occasional skirmishes between YPG/YPJ and jihadist forces on its borders. As a result, Afrin offered peaceful sanctuary to over 300,000 internally displaced people from elsewhere in Syria.