Explosion in Afrin kills Kurdish villager

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – A Kurdish villager was killed on Wednesday when a mine exploded under his tractor in Syrian Kurdistan’s (Rojava) Afrin region.

Local sources said the victim, Ahmed Khalil Haj Alo, was killed when he drove his tractor over the explosive believed to be left over during a months-long campaign by Turkey into the formerly Kurdish-held enclave.

The Turkish-led offensive in Afrin began earlier this year and resulted in the death of over 250 civilians and displacement of tens of thousands of others.

Ankara launched the campaign in January, arguing it was meant to clear its southern border of the threat posed by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) who Turkey says has ties to the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), thus labeling them “terrorists.”

The operation, which reached its climax in March, received condemnation from human rights organizations who criticized Turkey for ignoring large-scale rights abuses in areas under its control.

On Tuesday, a Kurdish man succumbed to his injuries after he was attacked by Turkish-backed rebels at his home in Afrin over the weekend.

Members of the armed group Ahrar al-Sham raided the home of 40-year-old Sami Haj Khalil on July 15, attacking him and his brother Ibrahim before looting $2,000 worth of property from the house.

Sources said Sami was tied to a tree outside his residence in the Haj Hasna village of Jindiris town located in northwestern Syria’s Afrin district.

He was discovered a day later beaten and tortured, and despite being taken to a hospital, he eventually died of his injuries due to a lack of medicine available. Sami was a father of four.

On Monday, another Turkish-backed rebel group, Ahrar al-Sharqiya, admitted to the murder of two Kurdish youth in Afrin’s countryside four months ago.

The family of the victims, Hussein Abdulrahman Sagher, 25, and Walid Jamil Sourani, 19, refused an offer of financial compensation from the armed group.