Eurasia Press & News
Washington has accused the Suleiman Shah Brigade, the Hamza Division and their leadership of committing serious rights abuses in the Kurdish-majority enclave of Afrin.
The US Treasury Department imposed sanctions Thursday on two Turkey-backed Syrian militias accused of forcibly displacing and oppressing the local Kurdish population in northern Syria’s Afrin region.
Treasury said the Suleiman Shah Brigade and Hamza Division “exacerbated the suffering caused by years of civil war in northern Syria and hindered the region’s recovery by engaging in serious human rights abuses against vulnerable populations.”
Both groups have fought under the banner of the Turkey-backed Syrian National Army (SNA), a coalition of hard-line Islamist and moderate rebel factions formerly known as the Free Syrian Army. The UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria as well as the State Department’s annual human rights reports have documented a slew of rights violations committed by the SNA against Kurdish, Yazidi and other civilians.
In a statement Thursday, Treasury accused the Suleiman Shah Brigade of targeting Afrin’s Kurdish population with harassment, abduction and other abuses to force them to vacate their homes or pay large ransoms for the return of their property and family members, as reported in-depth by Al-Monitor.
Afrin is a Kurdish-majority enclave held by Turkish-backed Syrian groups since a 2018 offensive by the Turkish military and its Syrian proxies expelled the Kurdish militia known as the People’s Protection Units (YPG).
Also sanctioned was Suleiman Shah Brigade’s leader, Mohammad Hussein al-Jasim, known as Abu Amsha. Members of the Suleiman Shah Brigade acting on his orders forcibly displaced Kurdish residents, seized their property and used the abandoned homes to relocate Syrians from outside the region, according to Treasury.
Abu Amsha’s kidnapping scheme likely generated tens of millions of dollars per year in ransom payments, it said. He is also accused of raping the wife of a brigade member.
Treasury also designated Al-Safir Oto, an Istanbul-headquartered car dealership owned by Abu Amsha that it said provides an outlet for him to invest his income. The dealership has multiple locations in southern Turkey that are managed by Suleiman Shah Brigade commanders.
Abu Amsha’s younger brother Walid Hussein al-Jasim was sanctioned over accusations he was coordinating abductions, muggings and ransoms as a senior leader of the Suleiman Shah Brigade. Al-Jasim, who headed the group when Abu Amsha left Syria to fight in Libya, reportedly killed a prisoner in 2020 who was unable to pay ransom.
The other newly designated Syrian armed group, Hamza Division, has been involved in abductions, theft of property and torture, according to Treasury. The group allegedly runs detention facilities where victims are held for ransom and often sexually abused by Hamza Division fighters.
Treasury also designated Sayf Boulad Abu Bakr, under whose leadership the Hamza Division has been accused of brutally repressing the local population.
“Today’s action demonstrates our continued dedication to promoting accountability for perpetrators of human rights abuses, including in Syria,” Brian Nelson, Treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in a statement.
The Syrian groups were sanctioned under an executive order issued by former President Donald Trump that was used to briefly sanction Turkish government agencies and officials over the country’s incursion in northern Syria in October 2019. The Turkish military campaign against Kurdish fighters garnered international criticism over the rights abuses reportedly committed by the Syrian proxy fighters Ankara deployed to carry out its ground offensive.
In July 2021, the Biden administration imposed sanctions on SNA faction Ahrar al-Sharqiyah and two of its leaders, citing the group’s 2019 roadside execution of female Kurdish politician Hevrin Khalaf and its alleged recruitment of former IS members. The designation marked the first time the United States had sanctioned one of Turkey’s proxies in Syria.
The most recent inspector general’s report for Operation Inherent Resolve, the operational name for the US fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, said the State Department remained concerned by reports that most Turkey-backed groups in the region continued to recruit and pay fighters, some of whom were formerly part of the Islamic State.
The groups continued to “control most revenue-generating activities in northwestern Syria and to carry out their illicit activities with impunity,” the report said.
