Turkey-backed Free Syrian Army militias in occupied Afrin threatened to kill a captured civilian in a series of ISIS-style hostage videos released by the Center for Documenting Violations in Northern Syria on September 1st.

The first set of videos show a member of an unknown militia threatening a blindfolded man, identified as Hasan Omar Fawzi, a farmer kidnapped from the town of Mabata about a month and a half ago. He informs Fawzi that he will be killed and that the videos will be passed on to his family.

“We will send it to your children. And tomorrow you will be filmed again while you’re being killed, and we will send that to your children as well,” the militia member says. He also admits to having tortured his captive.

A final video shows an unknown militia member holding a knife to Fawzi’s neck as he is made to address his family. He says that he will be beheaded if they do not send his captors a ransom of 1 million Syrian pounds— about 1,941 USD, and an exorbitant amount in a country where prewar GDP per capita was just 1,700.39 USD.

Occupying militias are known to have kidnapped and tortured over a thousand civilians, especially those with any relationship to the autonomous self-administration of Afrin Canton. Local collaborators have reportedly provided militias with lists of Afrin residents whose families would be able to afford large ransoms.

The videos are reminiscent of those produced by ISIS when the group first overran parts of Iraq and Syria. It has been alleged that Turkey used ex-ISIS members in Operation Olive Branch, and videos of Olive Branch forces singing ISIS nasheeds, interrogating civilians about Muslim religious practices to determine their faith, and threatening to behead “infidel Kurds” circulated widely during the invasion.

These practices confirm warnings raised by local authorities and activists that Turkey’s invasion and occupation of Afrin would create a new safe haven for extremism in Syria.