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Turkish airstrikes continue on Syria’s Serekaniye despite ceasefire

Turkish airstrikes continue on Syrias Serekaniye despite ceasefire
Turkish airstrikes continue on Syria’s Serekaniye despite ceasefire

2019-10-18 00:00:00 - Source: kurdistan 24

SEREKANIYE (Kurdistan 24) – Turkish warplanes continues bombarding the biggest hospital and some neighborhoods of the Syrian northern town of Serekaniye (Ras al-Ain in Arabic), local and military sources reported on Friday.

Since early Friday morning, Turkish warplanes intensified airstrikes on the main hospital in Serakaniye in addition to the bombardment of several surrounding villages, resulting in several casualties, local sources told Kurdistan 24.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which accepted the US-brokered ceasefire on Thursday, said Turkey is violating the ceasefire agreement by continuing to attack the town since last night.

“Despite the agreement to halt the fighting, air and artillery attacks continue to target the positions of fighters, civilian settlements, and the hospital in Serekaniye/Ras al-Ain,” Mustafa Bali, the SDF spokesperson, claimed on Twitter.

The SDF reportedly lost 5 fighters and several civilians have been wounded due a Turkish airstrike Friday morning on the Umm al-Khair village in the Serekaniye countryside, the SDF command asserted.

The town of Serekaniye has been besieged by the Turkish-led Syrian militias for several days.

A civilian convoy of hundreds of civilians, ambulances of the Kurdish Red Crescent (KRC) and the Free Burma Rangers relief organization were heading to Serekaniye to rescue the stranded civilians and the wounded, but they stopped at the southern outskirts of the town.

“We are at the front line, south of Serekaniye, and we are trying to get through to help evacuate the wounded but cannot because of the attacks and because the Free Syrian Army (FSA) has blocked all access,” said Dave Eubank from the Free Burma Rangers relief organization.

“Last night, a ceasefire was announced for northeast Syria but this morning the Turkish-backed FSA attacked. Today, 30 people were wounded by a Turk-FSA shelling east of Serekaniye,” he said.

The Kurdish self-administration has already called on the humanitarian and relief organization to open a corridor to rescue the stranded civilians in the town.

Editing by Nadia Riva 





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