ALEPPO, Syria — Tension has escalated in recent days in al-Bab city in Aleppo’s eastern countryside after a group of armed men belonging to the Hamza Division, affiliated with the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA), raided the home of an official from the narcotics division of the police forces and national general security, also backed by Turkey. 

The Sept. 13 raid raised popular anger and sparked angry protests in the streets of al-Bab, with some protesters burning tires and demanding that the aggressors and the group they belong to, which is known for drug trade in the area, be held accountable.

Muhammad Ghanoum, a journalist based in al-Bab, told Al-Monitor, “An armed group led by Abu Abdo al-Qadri, a prominent leader of the FSA’s Hamza Division, stormed Sept. 13 the house of Sohaib Abu Kasha, an officer of the police’s narcotics division of al-Bab city.”

He said, “The group brutally stormed the house before searching it and breaking some furniture, terrifying children and women who were inside the house at the time of the attack. One of the aggressors confiscated the cellphone of Abu Kasha’s wife and went through it. Before they left the house, another one of the aggressors told the wife that they broke into the house in retaliation for her husband confiscating a shipment of narcotics.”