Rojava hospitals care for civilians wounded by Turkish bombing

DIRBESIYE, Syria -- Doctors and nurses in northeast Syria (Rojava) are caring for the injured after two people were killed and many wounded by Turkish bombing in Hasaka on Tuesday.

“The number of the wounded rushed to the Dirbesiye hospital has reached 16. Among them was a woman who died... We referred some of the wounded to Hasaka hospital, some others to Qamishli,” Tamir Shikaki, a physician at the Dirbesiye Military Hospital, told Rudaw’s Barzan Farman.

The Turkish army bombarded Hasaka’s Zarkan district on Tuesday, leaving two people dead, including a child.

“The first wounded civilian rushed to the hospital was someone named Fahima. There was shrapnel in her abdomen and we operated,” Farhan Issa, a nurse at the Hasaka hospital told Rudaw’s Nalin Hassan on Tuesday. “Two other wounded are here and we will operate on them tomorrow.”

“We were sitting at home when all of a sudden we heard a huge bang. We didn’t know where to go, we didn’t know where to hide. Everyone grabbed their children and ran away. What crime have they committed?” said Salwa Mohammed, a civilian who survived the bombing.

Turkish military operations in the area have increased over the past week, according to a Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) spokesperson.

"Over the past four to five days, the Turkish army and the Syrian opposition militias have accelerated their attacks in the Zarkan and Tel Tamer districts of Hasaka province, resulting in civilian casualties," Aram Hanna told Rudaw.

In October 2019, Turkey launched an offensive against Kurdish forces in northeast Syria, displacing hundreds of thousands of people.

Earlier this month, a father and his three children were killed in a Turkish bombing near Ain Issa.

Reporting by Barzan Farman and Nalin Hassan 

Translation by Zhelwan Z Wali