Afrinpost – Special
On this day / December 2, 2019, the Turkish occupation forces and their Islamic militias committed a massacre in the city of Rifaat against the displaced from Afrin in al-Shahba areas, which led to the death of ten martyrs, including 8 children, in addition to the injury of 12 others.
The Children recalling the Massacre:
On the occasion of the anniversary of the perpetration of that horrific massacre against the displaced of Afrin, Afrinpost monitored the testimonies of the victims and the families of the martyrs, including the child Haitham Hesso, who lost two of his brothers in that massacre.
Despite his young age, Haitham was able to describe the most accurate details of what happened to him and to the other children who were playing on that sunny day. He says: “I was at home writing my homework and two of my brothers were outside playing, but they were martyred in the massacre. One of them had his intestines coming out and the other was hit in the head. And he broke down in tears and lost his head between his hands, so he could not complete his testimony.
The child Elias Hassoun says: “We were sitting and the children playing outside under the warm sunrise, we did not realize what happened, it was a terrible thing. The shells fell, the stones fell on us, and I saw my friends running away, and I ran with them to take cover in the rooms, but I fell on the ground and something like hot oil approached me, at the hospital I asked my mother what this thing was and she told me that I was injured in the shelling.
He added, “I was injured in the leg, and my brother lost his leg. During the shelling, I did not see where he went crawling, but I was able to take cover in a house, and they wrapped my wound in a cloth until I reached the hospital.”
The mother of the martyr Aref recalls:
The Kurdish displaced “Asmahan Khlo” lost her child, “Aref Jaafar,” who was only six years old.
Asmahan recalled those memories with pain, saying: “On that day, after a rainy week, the sun shone, so the children took advantage of the opportunity to get out of the houses and play in the street with their friends, but the Turkish aggression deprived them of the sun as well.”
Khlou added: “What does Turkey want from us to continue shelling us? Last night, the Turkish forces targeted our area, so my children said: We do not want to go to school for fear that it will happen to them, as happened with their brother. We cannot stay in al-Shahba because of the shells, but we also do not want to go anywhere, but rather we want to return to Afrin, and we will feel fear wherever we go, as the Turkish shelling is following us.
Asmahan appeals to states and governments to intervene to stop the Turkish attacks, and reiterates not to go anywhere, only to return to Afrin, and says: “We are not terrorists, but peaceful people, and our children are innocent and their right is not different from the rest of the children of the world, is to play, but they are denied this right.”
Asmahan expressed her frustration with the international community due to its silence about the perpetrators of the crime: “A year has passed since this massacre and we have not seen a reaction from the countries of the world, and no one even spoke for the right of our children, and yesterday, we were targeted by Turkish shelling, I felt the same feeling the day I lost my son, a year has passed, and the shelling is still going on. ”
The mother concludes saying: “We want to return to our land, here in al-Shahba we face suffering, and we are praying to return to our homes, and what we want is an end to the shelling, and send our children safely to school, hold their hands in the streets and play under the warm sun.
It is noteworthy that the massacre against displaced Kurdish children in Tal Rifaat city took place on December 2, 2019, in which ten people were killed, eight of whom were children from the displaced from Afrin. The shelling targeted the popular market, and the shells landed behind the Syrian Red Crescent and the garage in the town of Tal Rifaat.
The names of the martyrs: (Abdel Fattah Aliko (3 years old)- Hammouda Muhammad Ali (11 years old) – Mustafa Muhammad Majeed (10 years old) – Muhammad Omar Hami (7 years old) – Aref Jaafar Muhammad (6 years old) – Imad Ahmad Kefo (9 years old) – Samir Abdul Rahman Hasso (12 years old) – Muhammad Abdul Rahman Hasso (15 years old) – Hussein Abdullah Gul Dado (74 years old) from the village of Jala / Raju – Ali Mahmoud Othman (54 years old), nicknamed Abu Mahmoud from the village of Adama / Rajo).
