The militia of the Democratic Union Party (PYD) imposed a 72-hour curfew in the town of Mansoura in western rural Raqqa following angry protests that erupted in response to the PYD’s murder of a civilian at one of its checkpoints in the town on Wednesday. The PYD militia also rounded up a number of young people to take them into forced recruitment.
Local activists said that the PYD militia, which has been accused of large-scale war crimes, raided civilian homes in the town and detained a number of young men.
Dozens of military vehicles belonging to the PYD militia on Thursday stormed the town and dispersed the demonstrators with live fire from machine guns. Al-Raqqa is being Silently Slaughtered media campaign said that many civilians were injured.
Angry protests erupted in Mansoura on Wednesday after the PYD militia shot dead a young man, Zain al-Hamad al-Zain, who resisted attempts by PYD militants to detain him for a forced recruitment.
Turkey, meanwhile, reiterated calls for the establishment of a buffer zone in northern Syria and for the elimination of all terrorist organizations in Syria. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu on Friday said that his country was alone capable of establishing this zone.
President of the Syrian Coalition, Abdurrahman Mustafa, earlier stressed that the establishment of a buffer zone in northern Syria is necessary to act as a safe haven for civilians in Syria and to facilitate the return of refugees to the country regardless of their racial and religious affiliations.
President Mustafa also stressed the importance of freeing the Syrian people from the grip of all terrorist militias and rid Syria of all forms of terrorism. (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Department)
