Bombardment in Syria leaves Kobane law student without legs

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A first-year law student at the University of Kobane in northern Syria said she is determined to continue her education and seek justice after a nighttime bombardment left her with amputated legs and killed several family members.

An attack in January on the Kurdish-populated village of Kharab Ashk, about 40 kilometers southeast of Kobane, left Fatima Haji Mahmoud with both legs amputated and claimed the lives of five relatives.

From a bed in Kobane, Mahmoud spoke to Rudaw about her determination to finish her studies and pursue accountability.

“It was 11:30 pm; we were asleep,” she told Rudaw in an interview on Saturday. “Suddenly, there was a loud noise, and I felt my legs and my body burning. I opened my eyes and saw that everything around me had become a ruin; nothing was left.”

The shelling reduced her cousin’s home - where she had been staying with her brothers on January 25 - to rubble. Trapped beneath debris, Mahmoud tried to free herself.

“I moved the [concrete] blocks off my own legs to see what had happened to me. I saw that my legs were in very bad shape and wounded. I screamed,” she said. Her brothers reached her but were unable to pull her out immediately.

“We stayed in our wounds and pain until 9 am. After that, the villagers came and pulled us out and took us to the hospital in Kobane,” Mahmoud added.

That night, her cousin and her cousin’s son were injured, while other relatives were killed. Mahmoud said she draws comfort from the fact that her three brothers survived. She said one brother stayed by her side until help arrived.

“He told me: ‘Endure, don’t go, don’t die; our parents are waiting for us in the village, we will go back to them.’ With these words, they made me strong,” she said.

The artillery shelling took place amid a large-scale mid-January offensive by the Syrian Arab Army and affiliated forces groups against the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

A day after the attack, the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (DAANES) reported that Damascus forces carried out a “horrific massacre against a Kurdish family in the village of Kharab Ashk” near Kobane, condemning it as “a flagrant violation of all moral and human values.”

Earlier, the SDF accused Damascus-backed militants of carrying out “a massacre against the Bozan family” in a village southeast of Kobane, killing five family members and injuring five others by shelling.

Despite the trauma, Mahmoud said she will not abandon her dreams. “When this happened to me, I said everything is over,” she recalled. “But now my morale is high. I won’t let anything become an obstacle to my studies. I will finish my education.”

Her motivation, she said, comes from her parents. “I am not studying just for my own desire; I am studying for my father’s sake. I will finish my studies for him.”

Mahmoud said she has been separated from her parents because of road closures enforced by the Syrian government. “Neither can I go, nor can they,” she said. “There is no way for them to come.”

In late January, Damascus and the SDF reached an internationally brokered agreement establishing a ceasefire and outlining the integration of northeast Syria’s (Rojava) civil and military institutions under Damascus. Despite the agreement, Kobane has remained under siege by Damascus-affiliated forces since mid-January.

Mahmoud is currently receiving treatment in Kobane, with nurses visiting regularly. “Yes, medicine is available. Nurses come every two days to check and clean the wounds,” she said. While pain persists, she said her psychological state is improving. “At first, I wasn’t well at all, but now I am slowly getting better, thank God.”

She called on the international community to “prevent these disgusting attacks that are being carried out against the Kurdish people,” adding: “We were civilians sleeping in our homes. We had no fighters with us, nor soldiers. This was a very brutal act.”

Asked whether she would pursue legal action, Mahmoud replied simply: “Yes,” appealing to lawyers worldwide “to pursue our rights and reclaim them for us.”

She also addressed the person who ordered the attack. “Was he not human to [be able to] carry out such disgusting attacks against us? Did his heart not ache? Did he not have a sister? Did he not have a family?”

When Mahmoud returned to the university, fellow students welcomed her warmly. “On such a painful day, they did not leave me alone and they lightened the burden of my pain,” she said.

Mahmoud said, “I tell them: I have seen this pain, allow no one else to see it.”