ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Refugees and displaced people from northeast Syria (Rojava) and Ramadi were among those injured in Monday's rocket attack on Erbil.
Three shepherds were at a market 300m from the rocket launch site when they were hit by one of the rockets. Two of them were badly injured.
Mustafa Qadir, 17, is from Kobane in Rojava. He has been working in Erbil for several years to feed his family in Kobane.
“We are refugees and we came here to work. He is injured and has had some surgery. He still needs two or three more operations,” his relative Faisal Mohammed said at Erbil’s Rizgary Teaching Hospital on Tuesday.
“He needed several operations, his thigh was fractured and there was a lot of shrapnel in his hip. There are large wounds in his abdomen, thigh and legs... His condition is stable but he has many wounds and needs to stay in the hospital for a long time,” said Dr Rawand Mushir, Manager of Erbil’s Rojhalat Emergency Hospital.
Nawaf Rashd, 30, is a father of two children and was displaced from Ramadi during the war against the Islamic State (ISIS). He has been living in Erbil for seven years.
He is now in a coma after sustaining brain injuries in the rocket attack.
“His skull is badly injured...thank God, the Kurds have been very helpful, they did their best. We have been displaced because of ISIS, we came here to make a living. My brother’s condition is not good and he needs surgery. He needs medication from outside the hospital,” his brother Hussein said on Wednesday.
On Monday night, one civilian coalition contractor was killed and 14 others injured in the rocket attack.
The rockets landed in different areas of Erbil including Naz city apartments, residential areas near the airport and Erbil’s livestock market.
An investigation is now underway to determine who conducted the attack.
A militant group called Saraya Awlia al-Dam (Guardians of Blood Brigades) claimed responsibility for the attack
The group claims it was targeting the al-Harir US military base, some 60km northeast of Erbil - the closest American base to Iran.
Reporting by Bestoon Khalid and Hadi Salimi
Translation and video editing by Sarkawt Mohammed
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