Turkish gendarmerie kills child in northwest Syria
IDLIB, Syria (North Press) – On Sunday, a child was shot dead by the Turkish border guards (gendarmerie) while trying to enter Turkey near Idlib countryside, northwest Syria.
Local sources told North Press that 16-year-old Muhammad al-Haj Muhammad was killed while trying to cross the Syrian-Turkish border near the Harem area, north of Idlib.
Muhammad was a resident of the town of al-Ghadfa, southeast of Idlib, and was on his way to Turkish territory to work there as a result of the deteriorating living conditions in the area, the sources added.
Most of those who try to enter Turkish territory resort to dangerous smuggling routes in the absence of other ways to reunite with their families or secure work to meet their needs.
The number of civilians killed by the gendarmerie since the beginning of the Syrian war has reached 478, including 87 children under the age of eighteen, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
At the end of last April, a farmer was shot dead by the Turkish forces while working on a farm in the Harem area.