The death toll from an attack that hit neighborhoods and a hospital in the northern Syrian city of Afrin, which is held by Syrian rebels close to Turkey, has risen to 21, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Sunday.
Most of the deaths occurred at Al Sifa Hospital, according to the same source. 17 of the dead were civilians. Another 23 people were injured.
A doctor, three hospital staff members, two women and two children as well as a guerrilla commander are among the victims, always according to the NGO.
According to the Observatory, the attack was carried out by forces close to the Syrian regime from areas under government control. So far, there has been no reaction from Damascus.
Turkey has hit targets in Tal Rifat after blaming the Kurdish armed group People’s Protection Units (YPG) for the attack. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) – a Kurdish-Arab alliance in which the YPG is the main component and is backed by the US – has denied that it was their own action.
According to the official Turkish news agency Anadolu, the Turkish armed forces, which have a large presence in areas of northern Syria, hit “terrorist positions” in Tal Rifat. Earlier in the day, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said “these cowards will pay for every drop of blood they shed.”
The Kurdish region of Afrin, in the province of Aleppo, was occupied in March 2018 by the Turkish armed forces and its Syrian aides. Ankara’s aim was to oust the YPG from the region, which it describes as a “terrorist” organization, calling it the Syrian arm of the PKK.
In this area, as in all rebel-held areas adjacent to Turkey, targeted killings, attacks and explosions are frequent.
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) yesterday condemned the attack on the Afrin hospital, which was “shut down”. He described the hospital as “one of the largest in northern Syria”. However, the blows he received “completely destroyed the emergency department and the maternity hospital”.
Wolfgang Gresmann, director of the IRC’s “Syria” division, said it was “the 11th attack on the health sector this year”, apparently referring to attacks in areas of the war-torn country where the NGO operates.
The war in Syria, which broke out in 2011 and became extremely complicated over the years with the involvement of various warring parties – jihadist organizations, guerrilla groups, separatist factions, foreign forces … – has cost the lives of some 500,000 people, according to estimates published by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, while turning millions of others into internally displaced persons and refugees.
