The Press Center of the Aleppo Internal Security Forces issued a statement reporting that gangs affiliated with the Damascus Transitional Government forcibly detained dozens of young people while withdrawing from the neighborhood of Sheikh Maqsoud. The statement clarified that these gangs attempted to portray the detained youths on social media as fighters of the Aleppo Internal Security Forces, but that the claim that the abducted youths were members of the Internal Security Forces does not reflect the truth.
The statement said: “In the context of systematic acts of genocide committed by factions and militias affiliated with the Damascus government, these militias have abducted dozens of young civilian men after forcibly separating them from their families as they were leaving the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, then proceeded to parade them in the media and falsely present them as fighters within our forces.”
The statement continued: “This blatantly criminal behavior reflects nothing but a systematic approach to falsifying facts, abducting civilians, and exploiting them as propaganda tools to cover up crimes of forced displacement, shelling, and intimidation. It is a literal repetition of the same crimes committed by these factions in the coastal regions and in Suwaida.”
The statement added: “We affirm that the abducted individuals are entirely civilians, and we hold the Damascus government and its factions fully responsible for their lives and safety. We call on the international community to assume its legal and moral responsibilities, to open an immediate investigation into these violations, to condemn them publicly, and to hold the perpetrators accountable as war criminals.”