Kurdish boy who suffered burns from Turkish attack transferred to Erbil airport for treatment in France

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – On Tuesday, Mohammed Hamid, a Kurdish boy who was severely burned in Turkey’s northern Syria offensive, arrived in Duhok and is being transferred to Erbil International Airport to travel to France for treatment.

Arrangements were made by Masoud Barzani, the President of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), for the boy to be treated in France as he was being transferred by the Kurdistan Region’s anti-terrorism helicopter unit to Erbil upon his arrival in Duhok.

Hamid, the father of the boy, told Kurdistan 24, “I want to extend my thanks and gratitude to President Masoud Barzani for contacting me and offering his help in finding treatment for my son.”

The father noted his son is a student who “was about to start the fifth grade as the Turkish assault stated.” There are thousands of civilian casualties with similar injuries to his son in northeastern Syria, he argued, condemning the situation.   

“I want the fight to end. My son is one of the casualties, and I don’t want anyone else to suffer the same agony as my son.”

Ankara’s long-threatened military push into northern Syria, which has the purported aim of confronting the Kurdish element of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the People’s Protection Units (YPG), began Oct. 9. It came following an abrupt decision by the US to abandon its main partner in the fight against the Islamic State in Syria and effectively sanction Turkey’s offensive after a phone call between the presidents of the two countries.

Turkey’s use of “unconventional weapons” in its assault in northeastern Syria was reported by SDF Spokesperson Mustafa Bali on Oct. 17 in a tweet with a video clip of a child who appeared to have chemical burns.

The child was being treated at a hospital in the city of Hassaka—almost 80 kilometers southeast of Ras al-Ain—with a resident doctor at the facility telling the local northern Syrian news agency ANHA that preliminary tests had shown that the victims were wounded by “internationally prohibited weapons.”

A controversial 120-hour US-brokered ceasefire, which began on Friday, has temporarily paused heavy clashes.

Masoud Barzani in a tweet on late Tuesday evening thanked French President Emmanuel Macron and the people of France for responding to calls to provide life-saving treatment to a Kurdish boy who suffered severe burns, potentially from chemical weapons used in a Turkish military assault.

President Macron, thank you and thanks to the people of France.

— Masoud Barzani (@masoud_barzani) October 22, 2019

Editing by Nadia Riva