Kurdish boy who suffered burns from Turkish attack transferred to Kurdistan Region Airport for treatment in France
Hamid, the father of the boy, told Kurdistan 24, “I want to extend my thanks and gratitude to President Masoud Barzani for contacting me and offering his help in finding treatment for my son.”
The father noted his son is a student who “was about to start the fifth grade as the Turkish assault stated.” There are thousands of civilian casualties with similar injuries to his son in northeastern Syria, he argued, condemning the situation.
“I want the fight to end. My son is one of the casualties, and I don’t want anyone else to suffer the same agony as my son.”
Ankara’s long-threatened military push into northern Syria, which has the purported aim of confronting the Kurdish element of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the People’s Protection Units (YPG), began Oct. 9. It came following an abrupt decision by the US to abandon its main partner in the fight against the Islamic State in Syria and effectively sanction Turkey’s offensive after a phone call between the presidents of the two countries.
Turkey’s use of “unconventional weapons” in its assault in northeastern Syria was reported by SDF Spokesperson Mustafa Bali on Oct. 17 in a tweet with a video clip of a child who appeared to have chemical burns.
The child was being treated at a hospital in the city of Hassaka—almost 80 kilometers southeast of Ras al-Ain—with a resident doctor at the facility telling the local northern Syrian news agency ANHA that preliminary tests had shown that the victims were wounded by “internationally prohibited weapons.”
A controversial 120-hour US-brokered ceasefire, which began on Friday, has temporarily paused heavy clashes.
Editing by Nadia Riva
