DAMASCUS (Dispatches) – Syrians from the Shaitat clan have staged a protest in the eastern Dayr al-Zawr Province to condemn the U.S. arrest of 300 tribesmen for fighting Daesh terrorists.
The participants in Saturday’s demonstration called for the release of the tribesmen, who are held in prisons run by the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a U.S.-backed alliance of mainly Kurdish forces fighting against Damascus, Russia’s Sputnik news agency reported.
The protesters said American forces and their allied SDF militants had imprisoned members of the Shaitat clan without any charges.
They threatened that if the detainees were not released, the protests would spread all over the Dayr al-Zawr countryside.
Sheikh Khalil al-Kahilat Abu Wahaj, a prominent figure in the Shaitat clan, told Sputnik that the residents of Abu Hamam, Kishkiya and Garanij towns are outraged at U.S. occupation troops and SDF militants, who have kidnapped Syrian tribesmen on charges of collaborating with Russian and Syrian government forces.
“All these people, who are in the SDF custody, have in the past years participated in the fight against Daesh with the support of the Syrian Arab Army,” he added.
He put the total number of the inmates at 300, saying 15 of them were detained this month.
Meanwhile, Syria’s official SANA news agency reported that the protesters had blocked roads leading to Abu Hamam by burning tires.
Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. The Syrian government says the U.S. and its allies are aiding Takfiri terrorist groups that are wreaking havoc in the Arab country.
The United States has deployed forces and military equipment in Syria without any authorization from Damascus or the UN. It has long been training militants and stealing Syria’s oil, ignoring repeated calls by Damascus to end its occupation of the country.