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
Syrian government foils Daesh plot to attack churches and New Year celebrations
- Bomber kills soldier in Aleppo, detonates explosives injuring 2 others
ALEPPO, DAMASCUS: The Syrian Interior Ministry announced on Thursday that it had thwarted a Daesh plot to carry out suicide attacks targeting New Year celebrations and churches, particularly in Aleppo.
The ministry said in a statement that, as part of ongoing counterterrorism efforts and careful monitoring of Daesh cells in cooperation with partner agencies, it had received intelligence indicating plans for suicide attacks targeting New Year celebrations in several provinces, particularly Aleppo, with a focus on churches and civilian gathering areas.
The ministry added that it took preemptive measures, including reinforcing security around churches, deploying mobile and fixed patrols, and setting up checkpoints across the city.
During operations at a checkpoint in Aleppo’s Bab Al-Faraj district, security forces intercepted a suspected Daesh member who opened fire. One internal security soldier was killed, and the attacker detonated explosives, injuring two others.
Daesh recently increased its attacks in Syria, and was blamed for an attack last month in Palmyra that killed three Americans.
On Dec. 13, two US soldiers and an American civilian were killed in an attack Washington blamed on a lone Daesh gunman in Palmyra.
In retaliation, American forces struck scores of Daesh targets in Syria.
Syrian authorities have also carried out several operations against Daesh since then, saying on Dec. 25 they had killed a senior leader of the group.
