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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Afrin IDPs in Syria’s north suffer from repeated Turkish bombardment |
| 2022-02-22 |
ALEPPO NORTHREN COUNTRYSIDE, Syria (North Press) – Over the past four years, the Turkish bombing has spared nothing, neither human life nor property, as villages in the countryside of Afrin and areas where Afrin’s IDPs residing have been subjected to repeated Turkish shelling with the support of the Turkish-backed armed opposition factions causing human and material losses. Since 2018, 15 civilians, most of them children, were killed and dozens were wounded due to the Turkish bombing of villages in Sherawa district, south of Afrin, and the northern countryside of Aleppo, north Syria, according to statistics by Human Rights Organization-Afrin. The bombing also burnt 2,100 acres of land, caused the loss of livestock in Sherawa, and destroyed houses, according to the organization. On February 15, the center of the city of Tel Rifaat and its surroundings were hit with about 20 missiles by the Turkish forces, injuring 5 children as well as damaging civilians’ property. In March of 2018, Turkish forces and Turkish-backed armed factions took control over the city of Afrin, displacing more than 300,000 indigenous people towards Shahba region, Aleppo northern countryside. Some of them resorted to camps namely al-Awda, Afrin, Barkhodan, Sardam and Shahba, while others settled in 42 villages and towns in Aleppo northern countryside, as some families moved to other Syrian towns and cities, most notably to areas run by the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES). Meanwhile, Turkey did not manage to seize several villages in Sherawa district including Soghana, Aqiba, Ziyara, Ibbin, Kalotah, Mayasa, Zarna’it, Zouq Kabir, Burj al-Qas, Bashemra and Khereibka, and then to be seized by Syrian government forces following the withdrawal of People’s Protection Unites (YPG) from there. RUSSIAN AND GOVERNMENT SILENCE The presence of the government forces in the aforementioned villages in Sherawa district, south of Afrin, and the deployment of Russian forces points in the northern countryside of Aleppo, do not prevent Turkey and its backed factions from targeting these areas on an almost daily basis. Suleiman Ja’afar, the co-chair of the Legislative Council of Afrin, said since they were forcibly displaced to the northern countryside of Aleppo, they have met with the Russian forces deployed in the area several times, “every time they try to hold us to give up everything, even Afrin.” “During our recent meeting with the Russians in the village of Wahshiya, the Russian official told us that Russia is not ready to hold the weapons to defend you,” Ja’afar added. Ja’afar considers the Russian silence regarding the Turkish bombing an evidence of exchanged interests between the two parties. The headquarters of the Russian forces are located in the northern countryside of Aleppo, they deploy in the villages of Wahshiya, Kashta’ar and the city of Tel Rifaat. The Russian and the Syrian government silence regarding the Turkish bombing raises fears among the displaced people that Russia won’t support them, as it did previously when Turkey invaded Afrin. Russia expelled its forces from Afrin, at the time, evacuated their points, and headed to the northern countryside of Aleppo. TERRIFIED CHILDREN Aziza Ibrahim, a mother of three, an IDP of a village of Afrin countryside and residing in Tel Rifaat, does not know how to dispel her children’s fears during the bombardment. “My children go to school, but they are scared. We were not spared from the bombing despite our displacement to the northern countryside of Aleppo, we were bombed and the shells rained down on us,” said Ibrahim who lost two of her children, 15 years old and 11 years old, in Turkish bombardment on Tel Rifaat in December 2019. Ibrahim said her children cannot sleep because of the intense sounds of the bombing. The scenes of the Tel Rifaat massacre, which killed 10 civilians, eight of whom were children under the age of 15, in addition to wounding 13 others, are still stuck in minds of Afrin’s displaced, young and old. VICTIMS OF TEL RIFAAT MASSACRES On the fourth anniversary of Turkey’s invasion of Afrin, the Turkish forces bombed the villages of Aqiba, Ziyara, and the vicinity of Deir Jamal and Sheikh Issa village in the northern countryside of Aleppo, reporting material damage. Amina Mustafa, displaced of a village of the countryside of Afrin to the village of Aqiba, recounts the moments of the bombing, which wounded her husband and destroyed part of the roof of her house. Mustafa indicates that all her family members were inside the house when the shell fell on one of the rooms. “My children were sitting in the room when a shell fell, I was in the room with my husband and our ten children.” “A shell hit the house, thank God, my children didn’t get hurt,” she noted. Reporting by Nariman Hesso |
| Posted by:badanov |