The Council of the European Union lately added two Syrian individuals and three Syrian entities to its global human rights sanctions list, according to a statement.

In March, a wave of violence that descended on Syria’s coastal region left a high number of victims, including many civilians, the Council—sometimes known as the Council of Ministers and which has the power to amend, approve or veto European Commission proposals—observed. It noted that the EU’s High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy on March 11 issued a statement to condemn the “horrific” crimes committed against civilians, including arbitrary killings.

The three sanctioned entities were commanded by the two sanctioned individuals. All took part in the violence, targeting civilians and especially the Alevis (or Alawis, Alawites), and there were arbitrary killings of civilians, according to the Council.

Suleiman Shah Brigade

One of the sanctioned individuals, Muhammad Hussein al-Jasim (Abu Amsha), is the founder and leader of the Sultan Sulaiman (Suleiman) Shah Brigade.

The brigade, one of the entities that was sanctioned, is an armed militia that was created by Amsha in 2016 in the town of Jarabulus in northern Syria on the border with Turkey. Amsha claims to command more than 2,000 Sunni jihadists, mainly Turkmen.

Hamza Division “tortured and extorted”

The other sanctioned individual is Sayf Boulad Abu Bakr (Sayf Balud/Seyf Ebubekir/@seyfebubekir1), leader of an armed militia known as the Hamza Division. It was also created in 2016.

During the Syrian War, which broke out in 2011, the Hamza Division, under Boulad’s command, was responsible for numerous acts of torture in its detention centres, extortion and the forced displacement of civilians, particularlay in the Afrin and Aleppo regions of northern Syria, according to the EU.

The two militias emerged in 2012, the year after the outbreak of the war. Since then, they have been renamed and rebranded.

Sultan Murad: Deployed in Libya, Nagorno-Karabakh and Niger

The third and last sanctioned entity is the Sultan Murad Division, an armed militia established in 2013, which operated throughout the Syria War. The division is affiliated with the Syrian National Army (SNA, formerly the Free Syrian Army FSA/OSO). It claims to have between 5,000 and 10,000 jihadists in its ranks.

The FSA and SNA represent a failure by Turkey to organise militant groups during the Syria War.

Before the fall of Syria’s Assad regime last December, the Hamza Division participated in operations targeting Kurds in Syria. It went after the Kurdish-led armed militia currently titled the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), employing torture, arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances and the ill-treatment of prisoners, according to the EU.

Video: The Sulaiman Shah Brigade and Hamza Division attacking Kurds in Manbij in northern Syria live on TV following the fall of the Assad regime.

In February, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and Turkey’s ruling regime announced a collaboration. Currently, their proxies in Syria are refraining from shooting at each other.

The Sultan Murad Division has also participated in military operations outside Syria, including in Libya, Nagorno-Karabakh and Niger, the EU says.

Sanctioned by US in 2023

In 2023, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed sanctions on the Suleiman Shah Brigade and Hamza Division over torture, abduction and theft in Afrin, a region captured by Turkey’s army and the SNA during Operation Olive Branch, which was launched in 2018.

The centre of the city of Afrin was also captured that year. Clashes in the surrounding region continued until last year. Afrin is an olive-growing region. The SNA has been accused of stealing Afrin harvested olives.

Company in Turkey and a role in the Libya War

Abu Amsha owned Turkey-based car dealing company Al-Safir Oto in partnership with the leader of the Syrian armed group Ahrar Alal-Sharqiya, the earlier-sanctioned Ahmad Ihsan Fayyad al-Hayes, according to US officials.

His brother served as head of the brigade in Syria when Abu Amsha left Syria to fight in Libya, they added, also noting that Sayf Boulad Abu Bakr is the leader of the Hamza Division.

Abu Amsha, commander in Syrian Army

In February, Syria’s defence ministry, controlled by the transitional government in the country set up after Assad fled, announced that it had appointed Abu Amsha as commander of the Hama military brigade in the emerging new Syrian army.

Photo: Boulad (left), former terrorist and now president of Syria Ahmed al-Sharaa (who was known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammad al-Jolani) (middle), and Amsha (right), pictured on December 16, 2024.

Photo: Amsha the soldier, pictured on January 29, 2025.

Amsha and Boulad regularly turn up in Ankara, posing with officials of Turkey's ruling coalition and associated mafia bosses. Please check Boulad’s X account, @seyfebubekir1.