KURDISH women and girls in the Turkish-occupied region of Afrin, northern Syria, continue to be forced into marrying jihadists against their will, it was reported yesterday.

According to the ANHA news agency, Mustafa al-Zawhari, a leading figure from a Turkish-backed Islamist group, threatened widow Shirin Fawzi Aliko, a Kurdish villager, with kidnapping and jail unless she married him. 

Sources on the ground told the Morning Star that the practice remains commonplace, with the jihadist groups subjecting those who refuse to severe torture and rape.