First female White Helmets rescuer killed

BEIRUT: The White Helmets rescue force suffered its first female fatality on Saturday, after air strikes hit a rebel-held town in the battered Idlib province of northwest Syria, the group said.

It said rescue worker Sobhiya al-Assad was killed along with several members of her family when bombing raids hit their house in the town of Kafr Sejna.

“She’s the first female #WhiteHelmet volunteer to be killed. Her service will never be forgotten,” the rescue group said.

The White Helmets have rescued thousands of civilians trapped under rubble or caught up in fighting along various fronts of Syria’s conflict.

A vast majority of its 3,700 members are men, but it does include female rescuers. The group emerged in 2013, when Syria’s conflict was nearing its third year. Since their founding, more than 200 volunteers have died and 500 have been injured.

The group’s motto — “To save one life is to save all of humanity” — is drawn from a verse in the Quran, although the White Helmets treat all victims.

The group receives funding from a number of governments, and also solicits donations to purchase equipment, including their signature hard hats which cost US$145 (RM567) each.

In Muscat, Oman, United States Defence Secretary Jim Mattis warned Syria yesterday it would be “very unwise” for government forces to use weaponised gas, as he cited reports of chlorine attacks in eastern Ghouta.

He noted America's cruise missile strike on April 6 last year on a Syrian air base over a sarin gas attack, and said President Donald Trump had “full political manoeuvre room” to take whatever decision he believed was appropriate.