Syrian Arab rebels shell Aleppo’s Kurdish district

ALEPPO, Syria (Kurdistan24) – On Friday, a child lost her life, and five other civilians were wounded in a bombardment carried out by Syrian armed opposition groups against the mainly Kurdish-populated area in the city of Aleppo, northern Syria.

The Syrian Kurdish forces of People’s Protection Units (YPG) released a statement on Friday regarding the civilian attack.

The statement said that the Syrian armed opposition groups represented by the Syrian Arab Opposition Coalition shelled Aleppo’s Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood with “Hell cannons” and many other heavy weapons.

“At around [5:00 p.m.] on May 20, Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood was bombarded with Hell canons (locally made improvised weapons of gas cylinders), Hamim missiles and mortars by the armed groups related to the Syrian Arab Opposition Coalition that includes Syria’s Kurdish National Council (ENKS),” the YPG statement said.  

According to the YPG report, a 14-year-old girl lost her life and five others, including two children, are injured.

Nidal Hannan, a Syrian Kurdish activist who is monitoring the fight between Kurds and the Syrian Arab rebels in Aleppo, told Kurdistan24 on Friday that the shelling targeted a residential area near Musab Bin Omair Mosque.

“The two children, Iman Saeed, 10-years-old, and Fatima Saeed, 12-years-old, were severely wounded, while Leila Saeed, 14, succumbed to her injuries while being transferred to the local clinic in Sheikh Maqsoud,” Hannan said.

The Syrian opposition armed groups, including al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Nusra Front and Ahrar ash-Sham, have intensified their shelling on Sheikh Maqsoud over three months.

Regarding the casualties during this period, the Syria-based Kurdish Hawar News Agency (ANHA) said in a detailed report on May 11 that the shelling killed over 100 civilians and caused severe damage to their properties.

“2,400 houses and shops were destroyed, and 111 civilians died, including 34 children, [and] 42 women,” ANHA reported. “Almost 727 civilians were critically injured, including 290 children and 205 women.”

WAR CRIMES

On May 13, in a detailed report, the UK-based human rights group Amnesty International accused the Syrian armed opposition groups of committing war crimes against the Kurdish civilians in Sheikh Maqsoud.

Amnesty said the heavy bombardment that has been continuously hitting the civilians and the use of chemical weapons against them many times in Sheikh Maqsoud amount to war crimes.

YPG, a key ally of both the United States and Russia in the fight against the Islamic State (IS), have been battling insurgents for months on a heavily contested frontline that includes the district and countryside near Aleppo.

Syrian insurgents continue to attack Sheikh Maqsoud because they see YPG as an ally of the Syrian government, a charge the Kurds deny.

Reporting by Hisham Arafat

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany