Explosion hits Syrian Kurdish city of Afrin, 50 wounded
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – An explosion on Sunday morning hit the Kurdish city of Afrin in Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava), wounding about 50 people, said a Kurdistan24 correspondent in the city.
Speaking to Kurdistan24 from Afrin, Mihemed Billo, a journalist and activist, reported that at least nine people lost their lives and over 50 others were wounded in the bombardment on the village of Khezewiye, west to Afrin.
“Four Asayish elements [Kurdish Security in Rojava] and five civilians lost their lives in the shelling,” he said.
Following the explosion, the wounded were transported to the hospitals of Avrin and Qenber in Afrin, Billo added.
Additionally, Billo pointed revealed the Kurdish security forces found two Ballistic rockets not exploded in a forest near the village of Khezewiye.
Most of the wounded were Syrian Arab Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) who sought shelter in the Afrin region after fleeing the warring areas of northern Aleppo between the Syrian Army and Turkey-based Syrian Islamist armed groups.
No group has claimed responsibility for the violence yet.
The following photos provided by ANHA show some of the wounded people in a hospital:
Afrin, which is controlled by the Kurdish forces of People’s Protection Units (YPG), is under siege and is divided from other Syrian Kurdish areas.
The city is separated by the Islamic State (IS) and al-Qaeda-affiliate, Nusra, from the east, the Syrian Army from the south, and the blocked Turkish borders from the north and west.
On Aug. 24, the Turkish army launched an operation in northern Syria to stop the Kurdish YPG forces from connecting the Kurdish city of Kobani and Hasaka to Afrin.
Turkey maintains its fears that an autonomous Kurdish region in Rojava would encourage the same for its Kurdish population in southeastern Turkey.
Meanwhile, the United States continues to support the YPG in the fight against the Islamic State (IS) in Syria labeling the Kurdish forces as the most effective ground troops battling the insurgents.
Editing by Karzan Sulaivany