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The SDF has recently begun harassing motorcycle owners in the Deir Ezzor countryside. Activists report that SDF patrols patrol the villages and towns of the Deir Ezzor countryside at night, confiscating motorcycles used by residents for errands.
The SDF confiscates these motorcycles without prior warning or legal justification. In some cases, the motorcycle is returned to its owner after he is forced to pay nearly half its value. SDF members engage in these actions to collect money and rob people, without moral or legal deterrent, and with the blessing of their leadership, which grants them these “privileges” to maintain their loyalty and prevent defections within their ranks.
The night before last, more than 15 motorcycles were confiscated, including one belonging to a man carrying his sick mother in search of a doctor, another belonging to a hospital employee on his way to his night shift, and a third belonging to a man and his wife returning from a dinner party at his wife’s family’s.











