Popular Protests on The Rise against SDF Militia in Hasakeh

A number of shop owners in Qamishli market staged a sit-in in front of one of the headquarters of the US-backed “Qasad” militia to protest the militia’s repressive practices against the Syrian citizens there and the increase in the royalties the SDF is imposing on them, which increases their financial burdens and threatens them with the inability to continue and forces them to close their shops.

The pace of popular protest against the “Qasad” militia has increased significantly during the past months as a result of the repressive practices against citizens in Qamishli and its countryside in terms of arresting young people and kidnapping minors to push them into the SDF ranks, in addition to imposing royalties on commercial activities there. SDF militia practices of extortion of merchants and owners of workshops amount to armed robbery in some cases.

As an expression of the people’s rejection of these practices and attacks on public life, the people of the villages of Yusufiya and Al-Junaidiah in Rmelan area staged a protest against the “Qasad militia” during which they cut off the main street and detained a military vehicle to condemn the measures and practices of the militia which complicate public life, increase the difficulty of living conditions and escalate the loss of safety.

In the same context,  Tel Hamis district in the eastern countryside of Hasakeh has been witnessing protests, demonstrations and confrontations with the militants of the “Qasad” militia. The locals there are protesting in order to denounce the militia’s repressive practices against the citizens, which include forcing farmers to sign a written pledge to sell agricultural crops, especially wheat, to the militia in exchange for fuel to operate water pumping stations to water crops that depend on irrigation.