The officials told investigators with the Lead Inspector General in March 2020 that Syrian rebel groups in Afrin have been accused of looting homes and archaeological sites, destroying Yezidi religious shrines, and kidnapping women for ransom.
At least 161 women have disappeared in Afrin since the Turkish occupation began, including 44 who were reported kidnapped this year, according to data collected by the Missing Afrin Women Project.
Six of them belonged to the Yezidi religious minority.
A report by Professor Amy Austin Holmes at the Wilson Center also found that it is now “virtually impossible for Yezidis to openly practice their faith” in Afrin, where more than half of the Yezidi shrines have been destroyed or desecrated.
The State Department stated that “as we do not have a presence on the ground, we are not in the position to confirm these reports but many appear to be credible.”
The U.S. military went further than the State Department. U.S. Central Command alleged that Turkey “actively supports several hardline Islamist militias and groups ‘engaged in violent criminal activities.’”
These groups have alienated Syrian Arabs, and “likely limited Turkey’s ability” to turn Arabs against Kurds, according to the Lead Inspector General report.
It remains to seen whether the U.S. government will significantly push back on Turkey and Turkish-backed rebel groups.
State Department officials “raised the issue [of war crimes] with officials at high levels of the Turkish government,” according to the Tuesday report, and Turkish officials responded that they are taking the issue “seriously.”
“The United States has not sanctioned any” Turkish-backed Syrian opposition groups, investigators added, but U.S. law “provides authority to do so if certain criteria are met.”
The Turkish-backed rebel government in Syria is not holding war criminals “accountable,” the U.S. State Department claimed in the new watchdog report, National Interest reported.
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