HRW Reveals Syrian Security Forces Continue ‘Extorting, Mistreating’ Civilians

Militants of the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) factions, which have become officially integrated into Syria’s military and security apparatus, have continued to commit human rights abuses – particularly against Kurds, according to a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report released on 14 May.

HRW said the SNA factions “continue to detain, mistreat, and extort civilians in northern Syria.”

“These fighters are being integrated into Syria’s Armed Forces, with their commanders appointed to key government and military positions, despite their past involvement in serious abuses,” the report said, calling on the Syrian government to “end and investigate ongoing abuses and exclude those with records of abuse from the Syrian security forces.”

The report cites a local rights monitor, Syrians for Truth and Justice (STJ), which has recently documented mass arrests carried out by SNA factions operating under the Syrian military.

“Hundreds remain detained in SNA-run, Turkish-supervised prisons,” it said. It noted an attack from December in which the Suleiman Shah faction of the SNA captured a village in Aleppo, beating civilians, looting, and making arrests “under the pretext of searching for weapons.”

At least two men who were attacked and detained during this incident remain imprisoned. HRW also cited previous reports of “abductions, arbitrary arrests, unlawful detentions, including of children, sexual violence, and torture by the various factions of the SNA, the Military Police, a force established to curb such abuses, and members of the Turkish Armed Forces and Turkish intelligence agencies.”

“The primary targets were Kurds and those linked to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which Turkiye considers part of the armed Kurdistan Workers’ Party [PKK], which announced its dissolution on 12 May. Turkiye, which still oversees former SNA factions and continues to provide weapons, salaries, training, and logistical support to these factions, also bears responsibility for their abuses and potential war crimes,” HRW went on to say.

The SNA was formed by Ankara in 2017 and for years served as Turkiye’s proxy in northern Syria. The coalition, which was a key tool in Turkiye’s war against Kurdish militants, incorporated scores of ISIS fighters into its ranks after the fall of Raqqa in 2017.

It also includes several other extremist organizations, including Jaish al-Islam and Ahrar al-Sham.

Following the collapse of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s government in December 2024, the SNA groups were incorporated into the new Syrian military, which is dominated by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) – the former Al-Qaeda affiliate that toppled Assad and assumed control of Syria.

These Turkish-backed groups, along with Syria’s official security forces and those affiliated with them, played a part in the massacres of thousands of Alawite civilians on the Syrian coast in early March.

Armed factions linked to the Syrian state have continued to target the Alawite minority sect, and have been implicated in the disappearance of scores of young women.

The HRW report came a day after US President Donald Trump announced the lifting of sanctions on Syria.

On Wednesday, Trump met with Ahmad al-Sharaa – the former leader of HTS who is now Syria’s interim president – calling him a “young, attractive, tough guy” with a “strong past” after the meeting and saying he has a “real shot at doing a good job.”

Sharaa was previously known as Abu Mohammad al-Julani. He served as the deputy to ISIS chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi back when the group was known as the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI). In 2011, he was dispatched by Baghdadi to enter the war against Assad’s government in Syria, where he took part in the launching of deadly suicide attacks against both security personnel and civilians before founding the Nusra Front (Al-Qaeda’s official branch in Syria) in 2012.