Kuna Masi airstrike survivor waits for prosthetic limb

KUNA MASI, Kurdistan Region — Payman Talib and her husband Kaywan were in their shop in Kuna Masi, north of Sulaimani, when a Turkish airstrike hit on June 25, injuring them and their two small children. 

Although the family’s shop has been renovated, the family are still recovering from the devastating blast.

Talib had her left leg amputated, and is now awaiting a prosthetic limb. 

“I still have constant pain. As for making the prosthetic limb, many have visited me. Some have decided to fund it for me. One of them is Mr Sarko. Mr Qubad [Talabani] has also promised me [a prosthetic],” she told Rudaw.

Sarko Halabjayi runs an organisation dedicated to providing prosthetics for amputees. 

He has contacted a doctor willing to make a prosthetic for Talib, once her wounds fully heal. 

“She was very happy, both in terms of her mental health and that we could create a way for her to forget the past and what has happened,” he said. 

Civilians are often caught in airstrikes targeting armed Kurdish groups in the Kurdistan Region. 

Eight civilians have been killed since Turkey resumed operations against suspected Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) locations in the Kurdistan Region in mid-June.

Teacher Khalid Abdulrahman was the latest to be killed in an airstrike in Duhok province last week.

The PKK is an armed Kurdish group which has fought Turkey for rights for that country’s Kurdish minority for decades. 

The Kuna Masi strike was said to be targeting fighters belonging to the Kurdistan Free Life Party (PJAK), an armed Iranian Kurdish group associated with the PKK.

Reporting by Arkan Ali

 Translation by Sarkawt Mohammed