The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has obtained shocking and harrowing testimonies from inside the predominantly Kurdish Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood in the city of Aleppo, northern Syria, recounting details of grave violations committed against civilians during the violent clashes that took place last January between forces of the transitional government and the Kurdish “Asayish” forces, prior to the former taking control of the neighborhood.
According to one documented testimony, armed men demolished a wall over the bodies of 17 civilians, burying the corpses entirely beneath the rubble in front of residents’ homes in a tragic scene. The wall was later rebuilt in an apparent attempt to erase the site’s features and conceal the bodies under the debris.
In a related context, additional field testimonies confirmed that armed elements threw a hand grenade directly into a civilian vehicle in which a number of residents had sought shelter while fleeing intense gunfire. This resulted in the death of all those inside and the burning of the vehicle. These incidents coincided with widespread retaliatory acts, including the burning and vandalizing of private property and vehicles belonging to residents of the neighborhood. Moreover, bulldozers and dump trucks were reportedly used to collect large numbers of civilian and military bodies and transport them in a degrading and inhumane manner to what is referred to as the “Sharia Office,” in practices described by sources as bearing a retaliatory character against the Kurdish component in the area.
Regarding individual violations, the Observatory received testimony detailing the case of a young man who was shot seven times near the “Yassin Yassin” school. He was left bleeding after being presumed dead; however, his mother managed to risk her life to transfer him to a hospital. Subsequently, a force affiliated with the transitional government reportedly raided the hospital, abducted him, and transferred him to an undisclosed location. His fate remains unknown to this moment, raising serious concerns about his life and the lives of dozens of detainees and forcibly disappeared persons who were detained during and after the military operations in the area.
By publishing these atrocities and placing them before the international community and human rights organizations, the Syrian Observatory calls for the opening of an immediate and impartial investigation to identify those involved in these acts of mass killing and concealment of bodies, and urges pressure on the controlling forces to disclose the fate of the missing and to halt violations targeting civilians on the basis of their ethnic or religious identity.
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