Turkish border guards kill Syrian child in IDP camp north of Idlib
IDLIB, Syria (North Press) – A displaced child was killed in al-Ali camp on the Syrian-Turkish border north of Idlib on Sunday evening, when the Turkish border guards (gendarmerie) fired randomly at the nearby camps.
Local sources told North Press that 12-year-old Radwan Sattam al-Obeid, from the town of al-Jebeen in the northern Hama countryside, was killed Sunday evening as a result of the Turkish border guards randomly shooting at the camp.
The sources indicated that the Turkish forces’ bullets hit several tents in the same area, where al-Obeid was killed in his tent in al-Ali camp, which is within Atma camp, north of Idlib.
The incident sparked anger among the camp’s residents, according to activists, amid calls to protest against the Turkish forces, especially since cases of sniping and killing of children by border guards have become a regular occurrence.
In mid-July, Muhammad Khair al-Jarrah was also shot dead by the Turkish gendarmerie while he was near the border strip with Turkey, north of Idlib.
In mid-May, the border town of Atma, north of Idlib, witnessed clashes with light and medium weapons between the residents of a camp and the Turkish gendarmerie, after the latter killed a child from the city of al-Lataminah, north of Hama.
In 2018, Human Rights Watch published a report entitled “Turkish border guards kill and injure asylum seekers,” and said that closing the borders endangers the lives of Syrians.
Human Rights Watch accused the Turkish border guards of shooting and beating Syrians when they tried to enter Turkey, which caused the death and serious injury of a number of them, and called on the Turkish authorities to stop repelling Syrian asylum seekers and investigate the use of excessive force by the guards.