Syrian Democratic Forces Abduct Minor “Ari Mahmoud Othman Shilash”
ARK News.. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) continue their policy of intimidating children, stripping them of their childhood, and sending them to forced recruitment camps in areas under their control, abducting yet another minor from Aleppo’s Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood.
A confidential source told ARK News that militants from the Revolutionary Youth Movement affiliated with the SDF, kidnapped 14-year-old Ari Mahmoud Othman Shilash from Sheikh Maqsoud on June 29, 2025.
The source added that Ari’s abduction follows the earlier kidnapping of his brother from the same neighborhood in early 2015, when his brother was also 14. His fate remains unknown to this day.
This comes despite SDF commander Mazloum Kobani having signed an action plan with Virginia Gamba, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, pledging to end and prevent the recruitment and use of children under 18 in military operations. Yet the practice of recruiting and deploying mi
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