Unrest has broken out in Deir ez-Zor upon the tenth day of the arrest of 5 civilians, including a mentally ill person and a child. The arrest has been carried out by the Deir ez-Zor military council, and is praised on social
media by both the SDF and the US coalition.
Many locals argue that the local militia ruled by Abu Khawla is highly corrupt and makes arbitrary arrests like these, as it cannot arrest any real ISIS members and ventilates its anger this way, trying to show both the SDF and the US coalition that they are successful at their work.
Omar Abu Leyla, Deiri political expert has stated: “For the ninth day in a row, Deir Ezzor Military Council is still keeping five civilians, including a child and a mentally ill person from Ash-Shahil in detention on charges of terrorism! The arrest took place with the knowledge of the coalition and the SDF command!
They accuse the detainees of being terrorists depending on the information they received from the patrol that carried out the arrest.” ” The commanders of Deir Ezzor Military Council leave many of Daesh members
moving freely, and vent their anger on and blackmail civilians, children, and mentally ill people! The military power exercised by the council of Abu Khawla creates a state of congestion, that neither the kurdish nor the American leaders know about. Corruption and bullying on civilians will generate a great anger if this situation continues without radical solutions.”
“I have been patient for several days, expecting that maybe someone is working to solve this problem and release these civilians, but unfortunately until now there is no one who cares, and all the official and unofficial attempts have not yielded any results.”
Omar Abu Layla speaks out unhappily with both the Deir ez-Zor military council and the SDF, that have refused to investigate the case. On social media, we can see numerous protests to these arrests. As many people
describe them as normal, poor people that have nothing to do with extremists or politics as a whole.
SDF’s Deir ez-Zor military council kidnaps 5 civilians
