|
Rebel artillery hit Kurd areas in Aleppo
ALEPPO – Islamist rebel groups launched on Saturday a renewed attack on the Kurdish district of Sheikh Maqsoud in Aleppo city, killing and wounding a number of civilians.Local sources reported that fighters of the Islamic Movement of Ahrar al-Sham and allied groups shelled the Kurdish-populated Sheikh Maqsoud district with mortars. “Seven civilians lost their lives, including three children, due to the mortar attack on Sheikh Maqsoud,” Dr Mihemed Hamke, director of a local hospital in the targeted area, told ARA News. Dr Hamke added that more than a dozen civilians were injured in the bombardment on Saturday. “Some of them are in critical condition,” he said. Ahrar al-Sham Movement, backed by the al-Qaeda splinter group of Jabhat Fateh al-Sham [previously known as Nusra Front], used their bases in the nearby neighbourhoods of Ain al-Tal and Baedin to bomb Sheikh Maqsoud district. The Kurdish district of Sheikh Maqsoud has been under siege by Syrian Islamist rebels for years, and violence has recently intensified in the district as the Kurdish YPG forces have been trying to push back the Islamist groups. Amnesty International has recently issued a report with regard to the developments in the Kurdish-populated district, saying: “Armed groups surrounding the Sheikh Maqsoud district of Aleppo city have repeatedly carried out indiscriminate attacks that have struck civilian homes, streets, markets and mosques, killing and injuring civilians and displaying a shameful disregard for human life.” Speaking to ARA News, Luqman Ismail, one of the stranded citizens in Sheikh Maqsoud, said that electricity outage has continued for nearly three years because of repeated attack by Islamists on the main power network outside the district. “These groups are apparently punishing the people of Sheikh Maqsoud for their support to the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), who have been engaged in fighting with radical Islamists around the city of Aleppo,” he said in an earlier interview. Posted by: badanov 2016-10-09 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=469743 |