QAMISHLI, Syria – Turkish shelling on the Kurdish city of Qamishli, northeast Syria on Thursday killed an 11-year-old boy and seriously injured his 8-year-old sister while they played outside their home.
Turkey has continued to shell towns and villages along its shared border with Syria as part of Operation Peace Spring, which began Wednesday.
The 11-year-old boy, Mohammed Yousef, was killed in Turkish shelling in the Qudurbag area of eastern Qamishli on Thursday while playing outside with his sister Sara, neighbours told Rudaw’s reporter at the scene.
Sara was injured in the same blast – her right leg reduced to a pulp of meat and bone. In heart-wrenching footage from Salam Hospital in Qamishli she can be heard crying for water while her father Yousef weeps.
The children’s mother was also injured in the attack.
Rudaw correspondent Vivian Fatah went to Salam Hospital where Sara is being treated.
“A shell hit their house. As a result the boy died and we do not know what happened to the girl. They are the children of my brother,” the children’s aunty told Rudaw in the hospital waiting room.
Mohammed was already dead when he arrived at the hospital, one doctor told Rudaw’s reporter. Sara has undergone surgery.
“By the time they got him here, he was already dead. Artillery shrapnel had penetrated his heart,” the doctor said of Mohammed.
“The sister … has had her right leg cut off. There are fractures in her left leg due to artillery shrapnel. We have done a surgery for her, and we will see what happens.”
Rudaw’s reporter went to the site of the attack and spoke to residents.
“It was this house. The children were outside, playing. Then the shell came down, martyring the boy and blowing off the girl’s leg,” one neighbor told Rudaw.
Locals said another woman was killed near her home while returning from the market. Her son, Ahmed Abdullah, 35, was also injured.
Rudaw’s reporter had to cut short her discussion with residents when Turkish shelling resumed.
Mohammed was among eight civilians killed and 14 wounded in Turkish attacks across northeast Syria on Thursday alone, according to the Kurdish Red Crescent. This brings the total to 11 civilians dead and 34 injured since the offensive began on Wednesday.
According to the latest figures published by the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, 10 civilians have been killed since the start of the Turkish operation.
Turkey’s operation entered its third day on Friday with further shelling on Tel Abyad and Sari Kani.
Rudaw’s correspondent saw residents of Sari Kani fleeing to safety, leaving their possessions behind.
Residents of Sari Kani left with their belongings – fearing Turkish-backed Syrian proxies will loot their homes.
According to Hawar News Agency, media close to the ruling Kurdish authority in northeast Syria, a civilian was killed and another injured in Turkish shelling in the village of Tel Halaf in Sari Kani.
The agency also recorded the injury of four civilians in the Tel Abyad countryside.
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) told the agency its fighters had killed more than 100 Turkish-backed Syrian proxies in Sari Kani and had taken nine as prisoners on Thursday night. This could not be independently verified.
Turkey’s Ministry of Defense confirmed the death of the first Turkish soldier so far in the operation on Friday morning.
The Ministry also claimed Turkish forces have “neutralized” 277 Kurdish fighters. Turkey’s Defense Ministry used the word neutralize to refer to those killed, injured or removed from the battlefield.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the start of his long-threatened military offensive against Kurdish forces on Wednesday via Twitter.
He stressed the operation is designed to target the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) and would not undermine efforts to defeat remnants of ISIS.
Turkey views the YPG, which forms the backbone of the SDF, as the Syrian offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
The PKK has fought a decades-long guerrilla war with the Turkish state for greater cultural and political rights for Kurds in Turkey.
The autonomous Kurdish administration of northern Syria saw the US presence as a guarantee against Turkish attack. The SDF’s top commander Mazloum Kobani Abdi called the move a “stab in the back”.
World leaders, diplomats, members of Congress, and even celebrities were quick to condemn Turkey, but the international community is yet to take solid action to halt the offensive.
