ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - US embassy in Syria on Thursday expressed sadness over attacks on health workers in Syria’s notorious al-Hol camp, days after a paramedic was shot dead at the camp. “We are deeply saddened by recent attacks against health care workers at Al Hol camp in #Syria. Humanitarians are #notatarget and must be protected. We remain concerned by violence at Al Hol and the threats against camp residents and aid workers,” the embassy, which has been closed since 2012 after the outbreak of civil war in Syria, said in a tweet . Bassem Mohammed, 26, from the province’s al-Salihiya neighbourhood, was shot dead by two armed Islamic State (ISIS) suspects inside a medical service point in al-Hol camp in northeast Syria (Rojava). Mohammed was working for the Kurdish Red Crescent. Al-Hol, which mostly consists of children and women affiliated to ISIS fighters, is the largest camp for refugees and Internally Displaced People (IDP) in Syria. It consists of about 56,000 people - more than half of them are children, according to the latest data from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). “Such violence places residents under extreme stress, harming their mental health and longer-term prospects,” OCHA said on Wednesday in relation to the death of the paramedic. “Over the past year, Al Hol has seen a significant increase in violence among residents, with a range of horrific attacks reported. Since January 2021 to date, the UN has received reports of 90 murders of Syrian and Iraqi camp residents, including at least two humanitarian workers. Many others have been severely injured,” added the UN agency.
