Tal Refaat between renewed armed groups shelling and demands for stability and security

Northern Aleppo – North-Press Agency
Dijla Khalil   

The town of Tal Refa’at in the northern countryside of Aleppo is under constant shelling by the Turkish-backed armed opposition groups based in the town of Marea, causing material damage to the populated buildings, with injuries among civilians. Where they targeted the center of the town of Tal Refa’at with two shells on Thursday, which fell on houses, where a shell fell on a house belonging to the residents of Tal Refa’at and the other on a house for an IDP in  Tal Refa’at, causing material damage in the both houses.

North-Press roamed in the region and checked the damages, where an IDP from Afrin called Khalil Ahmad Hussein talked to North-Press, saying: "I was in the market when I heard the sound of shelling and I ran to the house, and on my way, I was told that it had targeted my house".  

He said that, he saw the shell hit the water tank and pierced the roof, adding: "The children were scared, and we took my grandson out of the rubble, but he wasn't hurt".

"The Russians and members of the Syrian government forces came here to protect us, but they do nothing", Hajar Khalil Ahmad, an IDP woman from Afrin said.

While Aref Hussein Mohammad, who is also an IDP from Afrin and was on the roof of the house when the shell fell, said that, "The shell came from the side of Marea, I was watching it, it passed over me and fell on my neighbor's house".

"We rushed into the street to save the neighbors, the people gathered, and we heard another shell which fell in the main street in front of us" he added, stressing that the town is full of civilians and the shells are targeting them with an international silence, "we want to go back to Afrin", he said.

It is said that, areas of northern countryside of Aleppo are home for tens of thousands of IDPs from Afrin region, and are occasionally subjected to ground attacks by the Turkish-backed armed opposition groups.