Violence and ‘napalm’ attacks force 50,000 civilians in Syria to flee
MORE than 50,000 people have fled twin offensives in Syria in recent days, as escalating violence displaces large numbers of civilians across the country.
Around 30,000 left the northern majority-kurdish city of Afrin, as Turkish and allied forces stepped up a siege.
In the Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta, some 20,000 have left rebel areas targeted by Syrian government forces. They continued streaming out in their thousands yesterday as the enclave was pummelled relentlessly. Aid agencies said they were expecting at least double that number to leave in the coming days and weeks.
Pictures from the Kafr Baytna neighbourhood showed the still-smouldering bodies of civilians in the street after the area was hit by what residents said were napalm-like incendiary weapons dropped from a Russian jet. Some 46 people were killed in the attack.
Moscow and Damascus accuse the rebels of forcing civilians to stay in harm’s way in order to use them as human shields. The rebels deny this and say the aim of the government assault is to depopulate opposition areas, as it has done in Aleppo and Homs.
Further north in Syria, the Kurdish People’s Protection Unit (YPG) militia, defending Afrin, said it was battling the Turkish forces and their Syrian militia allies, who tried to storm the town from the north.
Yesterday alone, Turkish artillery fire killed 18 civilians in the city centre, where remaining residents were stocking up on food in preparation for a fully-fledged siege.
Speaking from a makeshift clinic in southern Afrin, Dan Smith, a British volunteer medic with the YPG, told The Daily Telegraph he had seen many casualties in the past few days.
“The situation keeps getting worse, it’s a slaughter. They just bombed the civilian hospital,” Mr Smith, from London, said in a text message. “We’ve treated men, women and children, mostly with air strike and artillery injuries.”
The seven-year war has now displaced more than half of Syria’s 21million population.