ALEPPO — “Opposition forces have succeeded in imposing greater security in Afrin,” said Lt. Col. Mohammad Hamadin, official spokesman for the Syrian National Army (SNA), the Turkey-allied militias of the Free Syrian Army. Hamadin, who took part in Turkey's Operation Olive Branch in Afrin, told Al-Monitor that theft and looting by opposition forces had been quelled in the city. The Turkish army and its allies in the armed Syrian opposition captured Afrin from Kurdish forces on March 18.

Following the end of the fighting, Afrin experienced a wave of assaults and “taafish,” the colloquial term for looting committed by military members. The looters and thieves, who belonged to the armed opposition, took cars, motorcycles, tractors, furniture, household appliances and other private property and robbed shops.

The Ministry of Defense of the opposition Syrian Interim Government had formed the Military Police on Feb. 20 under the command of Mohammed Sheikhli. The force's main headquarters is in the city of al-Bab. The opposition forces are relying on the police to control security in the city. A number of opposition members accused of theft have been arrested.

After the Turkish and opposition forces seized control of Afrin, Hamadin said, the SNA erected dozens of checkpoints at the city’s entrances and exits and arrested scores of looters and perpetrators of other abuses against locals, including theft and vandalism, for investigation by the military. Large quantities of looted items have been secured and stored in warehouses for return to their owners.