U.S. Slams Sanctioned Warlord's Appointment as Syrian Military Leader

ANHA

Slain Hevrin Khelef on the right and Ahmed al-Hayes on the left assaulting two young men.

The U.S. has strongly criticised the appointment of Ahmed al-Hayes known as Hatim Abu Shaqra by Syria's interim government as commander of Syrian Army’s recently formed 86th Division in northeast Syria.

Asked at a press briefing on Thursday, 8 May 2025, about Hayes’s appointment, State Department Spokesperson Tammy Bruce strongly denounced it.

“The interim authority’s decision to appoint this individual who has a long record of human rights abuses and undermining our Defeat-ISIS mission to an official position is a serious mistake that the U.S. does not support,” Bruce said.

Farhad Shami, head of the Media Center of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), also denounced the decision saying, “The criminal Abu Hatem Shaqra, responsible for the assassination of Hevrin Khalaf and other crimes, belongs behind bars—not in official institutions.”

Hayes, who uses the nom de guerre, Hatim Abu Shaqra, emerged out of a Turkish-backed group of Syrian fighters, Ahrar al Sharqiya, which he led. Indeed, in 2021, the U.S. sanctioned both Hayes and Ahrar al-Sharqiya for their widespread abuse of human rights, including those of Syria’s Kurdish population.

He reportedly ordered the assassination of Kurdish politician Hevrin Khalaf, Secretary General of the Future Syria Party.

The U.S. first imposed sanctions on al-Hayes and his group Ahrar al-Sharqiya in the summer of 2021, under the Biden administration. As it did so, it noted the group’s targeting of Syrian Kurds.

The Treasury Department, in announcing the sanctions that July, described Hayes as “Ahrar al-Sharqiya’s leader,” stating that he “is directly complicit in many of the militia’s human rights abuses.”

Hayes “has been implicated in the trafficking of Yezidi women and children and has integrated former ISIS members into the ranks of Ahrar al-Sharqiya,” Treasury’s statement continued.

In describing the group, Treasury said, “Ahrar al-Sharqiya has a record of human rights abuse that includes the unlawful killing of Hevrin Khalaf, a Kurdish politician and Secretary General of the political party Future Syria, as well as her bodyguards in October 2019.” 

“The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights identified the murders as a possible war crime,” it added, stressing their significance.

“Ahrar al-Sharqiya has killed multiple civilians in northeast Syria, including health workers,” it continued, as it explained that the group “has also engaged in abductions, torture, and seizures of private property from civilians, barring displaced Syrians from returning to their homes.”

Treasury’s statement also explained that Ahrar al-Sharqiya maintained “a large prison complex outside of Aleppo where hundreds have been executed since 2018.” 

Hayes commanded the prison, even as the prison also supported blatantly criminal activities, the Treasury Department explained.

Ahrar al-Sharqiya used the Aleppo prison “to operate an extensive kidnapping for ransom operation targeting prominent business and opposition figures from the provinces of Idlib and Aleppo,” it said.



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