Oct 11, 2019 – swissinfo.ch
By Ellen Francis
BEIRUT (Reuters) – Kurdish doctor Farid Mustafa was one of the last to flee Ras al-Ain as Turkish bombs rained down on the Syrian border town. He fears may never return home.
He escaped on Thursday night with his wife and two small children as warplanes flew in the sky above a line of cars trying to get away from the border. A few people stayed behind to defend their homes.
“We were scared of the plane, not anything else,” he told Reuters. “Also my kids, I swear we’re not even worried about ourselves, but the kids. They were crying.”
Some 100,000 people have fled their homes since Turkey mounted its offensive in northeast Syria on Wednesday, moving away from the border and deeper into the region – which the Kurdish YPG milita and its allies control.
The exodus is the latest in Syria’s war that has already uprooted more than half of the population – some 11 million people – through years of multi-sided warfare which shattered the country.
Mustafa, with some 30 family members, is now staying at a relative’s house in the city of Hasaka, where many residents have opened up their homes.
He fears his Kurdish ethnicity would make him a target if his town of Ras al-Ain falls to Turkish forces and their Syrian rebel allies, enemies of the YPG.
“I’m not worried about my house, let it be destroyed,” he said. “But what if my town is gone, what will I do?” he said.
Ankara brands the YPG a security threat because of links to the Kurdish PKK which has waged a long insurgency inside Turkey.
Turkey’s offensive, its third into northern Syria, kicked off after a withdrawal from part of the border of U.S. forces, whose presence had until then deterred such an attack.
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which the YPG spearheads, decried the U.S. move as betrayal after they fought alongside each other to crush Islamic State across much of Syria.
Still, U.S. forces have not all gone. Dozens of Syrians fled towards one the U.S. bases outside the mainly Kurdish town of Kobani after it was shelled, some taking their cattle with them, a witness and a local official said.
Kobani was the birthplace of the U.S.-YPG military alliance some five years ago, when Washington intervened with air strikes to help Kurdish fighters turn the tide against Islamic State.
read more here:
https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/as-new-syrian-exodus-unfolds–some-fear-they-will-never-go-home/45292726
Categories: Arab World, Asia, Syria
Very sad indeed, Saudi has destroyed Yamen, now Turkey is destroy Syria. There is no peace in Islamic countries anymore, even in Indonesia Muslim kill Muslim too.
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I strongly believe that the Islamic teaching has been contaminated with wrong teaching from evil men.
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If Islamic scholars still reject to reform the Islamic teaching, peace will not be achieved, killing innocent people will continue for ever.
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All love ❤️
You are mixing up religion (Islamic teaching) with the stupidity of power plays. The Muslim rulers need to reform, not the Islamic teachings. Follow the peace moves of the Head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and then all would be fine!