Hisham Arafat / Kurdistan 24 – 2017-07-17 02:56:33
http://www.kurdistan24.net/en/news/9763c47b-1b3f-41f2-b49f-de75fa892518
Children Lose Limb, Life, Family to
Turkey’s Shelling of Northwest Syria
Hisham Arafat / Kurdistan 24
AFRIN, Syrian Kurdistan (Kurdistan24) (July 14-2017) — At least five civilians including children lost their lives when the Turkish army on Wednesday bombed the outskirts of Syria’s northwest Kurdish district of Afrin.
Omar, a 12-year-old Syrian boy whose leg was amputated as a result of the bombing, told Kurdistan24 a rocket hit nearby when he and his family were harvesting their farm in the countryside of the country’s northwest district of Shahba.
“We were all injured,” said Omar.
In the bombardment, Omar and his family were wounded and his father lost his life.
“Two rockets hit near us,” Omar continued. “The first one was a little bit further away, but the second rocket killed two. Someone’s leg was cut off and another one’s arm was amputated too,” he further said.
According to Afrin hospital, some of the patients were in critical conditions. “We received four wounded civilians, three were in a stable condition, but one was in a critical condition,” a nurse in Afrin hospital told Kurdistan24.
So far there has been no comment from the Turkish military.
Afrin and Shahba districts are held by the Syrian Kurdish YPG forces which are allies of the US in fighting the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria.
The YPG officials attribute the Turkish attacks on Afrin to the losses of IS in Raqqa and to Turkey’s failure in its futile attempt to stop Kurdish expansion in northern Syria.
Bahjat Abdo, a senior commander in the Syrian Kurdish YPG forces and the Head of Defence Authority in Afrin, told Kurdistan24 in an earlier interview, “Because Daesh [IS] is losing its last stronghold in Syria, Turkey is making all this chaos in the region.”
The mounting tensions between the YPG and Turkey, the two US allies, in northwest Syria threaten to open another major front in the multi-sided Syrian war.
Since July 6, the Turkish military has been bombarding Afrin and Shahba districts daily and continuously. Turkey also threats to invade Afrin and Shahba in the country’s northwest.
The Turkish attacks on Syria’s Kurdish-held northwest were met with mass demonstrations by people of the region against the violations of the Turkish military in the Syrian territory.
Additional reporting by Kurdistan24 correspondent Redwan Bezar in Afrin.
Posted in accordance with Title 17, Section 107, US Code, for noncommercial, educational purposes.
