ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Kurdish authorities in northern Syria have made an urgent plea for help saying civilians are trapped under Turkish aerial bombardment and street fighting between the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and Turkish-backed Syrian militias in the border town of Sari Kani (Ras al-Ain).
“Many civilians, children, women and elderly people have been stranded, dozens of people have been killed and hundreds have been injured,” the administration of northeastern Syria said in a statement on Thursday.
Aid agencies and medical teams such the Kurdish Red Crescent are unable to reach civilians because of “the systematic shelling of medical convoys by Turkish occupation aircraft,” the statement said. Fourteen people were killed when a convoy that included civilians and journalists was shelled, reportedly by Turkish forces, on Sunday.
Syrian Democratic Council (SDC) officials who administer the Kurdish-held enclave of Rojava also called for a humanitarian corridor to evacuate civilians from Sari Kani ,surrounded by Turkish forces, in order to prevent “massacres and genocide against civilians.”
“We in the Self-Administration for North and East of Syria call upon the international community, human rights organizations, the Arab League, the Russian Federation and the international coalition to intervene urgently to open a safe humanitarian corridor to evacuate martyrs and wounded civilians,” the statement pleaded.
Turkey launched its Operation Peace Spring into northern Syria last week with the goal of clearing Kurdish forces from a stretch along the border and resettling up to three million Syrian refugees living in Turkey.
The Kurdish-led administration in Northern Syria issued a letter on Thursday asking the relevant humanitarian organizations to help evacuate the wounded civilians who have been targeted by the Turkish bombardments and are trapped in Sari Kani.
“Urgent actions are needed to evacuate the wounded civilians inside Sari Kani,” the letter reads. “Turkey uses all kind of weapons including the internationally prohibited ones and our medical teams are unable to evacuate the civilians inside Sari Kani.”
Due to the Turkish incursion into Northern Syria, more than a dozen international NGOs have left the area.
However, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) confirmed to Rudaw that their office in Hasaka province is still open, and they are still active across the region.
"We have an office in Hasakah city, covering the 3 governorates of northeast Syria,” said ICRC’s Spokesperson for the Near and Middle East Sarah Alzawqari. “So far, we have not reduced our presence and have been adapting our response to meet urgent humanitarian needs arising from the hostilities.”
ICRC also confirmed that their services in Al-Hol camp are still running and the hospitals and clinics run by ICRC are operating normally.
The Turkish incursion into Northern Syria has left over 70 civilians dead and 300,000 displaced, according to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).
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