BEIRUT: Supplies are dwindling in the main hospital of Syria’s Afrin city, which has taken in 48 people killed and 86 wounded in recent Turkish attacks, its director said on Wednesday.
Ankara launched an air and ground offensive nearly two weeks ago against the Afrin region, opening a new front in Syria’s multi-sided war to target Kurdish fighters in northern Syria.
“We call on the United Nations to stop the Turkish aggression,” Khalil Sabri, head of the Afrin city hospital, said at a televised press conference. “The medical situation is getting worse in Afrin, and the medical supplies we have are about to run out,” he said.
Since the onset of Syria’s conflict in 2011, the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia and its allies have set up three autonomous cantons in the north, including Afrin which borders Turkey.
Syrian rebel factions, which are fighting alongside Turkey in its offensive, control territory around Afrin. The Syrian army also holds a patch of land bordering the canton.
Ankara views the YPG as terrorists and an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) that has waged a three-decade insurgency on Turkish soil.
The YPG spearheads an alliance of militias, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), that has seized vast territory from Daesh militants with help from the US-led coalition.
The SDF said Turkish forces and their rebel allies shelled a neighborhood in Afrin city on Wednesday, wounding 12 civilians.
Turkey’s state-run Anadolu agency said two rockets fired from the Afrin region hit the Turkish border town of Reyhanli and killed one person.
![]()
Supplies dwindling in Syria’s Afrin city hospital after attacks: Director
Supplies dwindling in Syria’s Afrin city hospital after attacks: Director
Hezbollah chief accuses Israel of ignoring ceasefire agreement
- Naim Qassem says moves to disarm his group in Lebanon are an 'Israeli-American plan'
- Lebanese military is expected to complete Hezbollah’s disarmament south of Litani River as oart of ceasefire
BEIRUT: Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem on Sunday said moves to disarm the group in Lebanon are an “Israeli-American plan,” accusing Israel of failing to abide by a ceasefire agreement sealed last year.
Under heavy US pressure and fears of expanded Israeli strikes, the Lebanese military is expected to complete Hezbollah’s disarmament south of the Litani River — located about 30 kilometers (19 miles) from the border with Israel — by the end of the year.
It will then tackle disarming the Iran-backed movement in the rest of the country.
“Disarmament is an Israeli-American plan,” Qassem said.
“To demand exclusive arms control while Israel is committing aggression and America is imposing its will on Lebanon, stripping it of its power, means that you are not working in Lebanon’s interest, but rather in the interest of what Israel wants.”
Despite a November 2024 ceasefire that was supposed to end more than a year of hostilities between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah group, Israel has kept up strikes on Lebanon and has maintained troops in five areas it deems strategic.
According to the agreement, Hezbollah was required to pull its forces north of the Litani River and have its military infrastructure in the vacated area dismantled.
Israel has questioned the Lebanese military’s effectiveness and has accused Hezbollah of rearming, while the group itself has rejected calls to surrender its weapons.
“The deployment of the Lebanese army south of the Litani River was required only if Israel had adhered to its commitments... to halting the aggression, withdrawing, releasing prisoners, and having reconstruction commence,” Qassem said in a televised address.
“With the Israeli enemy not implementing any of the steps of the agreement... Lebanon is no longer required to take any action on any level before the Israelis commit to what they are obligated to do.”
Lebanese army chief Rodolphe Haykal told a military meeting on Tuesday “the army is in the process of finishing the first phase of its plan.”
He said the army is carefully planning “for the subsequent phases” of disarmament.
Under heavy US pressure and fears of expanded Israeli strikes, the Lebanese military is expected to complete Hezbollah’s disarmament south of the Litani River — located about 30 kilometers (19 miles) from the border with Israel — by the end of the year.
It will then tackle disarming the Iran-backed movement in the rest of the country.
“Disarmament is an Israeli-American plan,” Qassem said.
“To demand exclusive arms control while Israel is committing aggression and America is imposing its will on Lebanon, stripping it of its power, means that you are not working in Lebanon’s interest, but rather in the interest of what Israel wants.”
Despite a November 2024 ceasefire that was supposed to end more than a year of hostilities between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah group, Israel has kept up strikes on Lebanon and has maintained troops in five areas it deems strategic.
According to the agreement, Hezbollah was required to pull its forces north of the Litani River and have its military infrastructure in the vacated area dismantled.
Israel has questioned the Lebanese military’s effectiveness and has accused Hezbollah of rearming, while the group itself has rejected calls to surrender its weapons.
“The deployment of the Lebanese army south of the Litani River was required only if Israel had adhered to its commitments... to halting the aggression, withdrawing, releasing prisoners, and having reconstruction commence,” Qassem said in a televised address.
“With the Israeli enemy not implementing any of the steps of the agreement... Lebanon is no longer required to take any action on any level before the Israelis commit to what they are obligated to do.”
Lebanese army chief Rodolphe Haykal told a military meeting on Tuesday “the army is in the process of finishing the first phase of its plan.”
He said the army is carefully planning “for the subsequent phases” of disarmament.
Latest updates
© 2025 SAUDI RESEARCH & PUBLISHING COMPANY, All Rights Reserved And subject to Terms of Use Agreement.