Rocket attacks | Civilian killed and others injured in recently-established village in rural Afrin
SOHR activists have documented the death of a civilian and injury of three others when rockets fired from areas where Kurdish and regime forces are deployed hit positions in “Kuwait Al-Rahma” village in Afrin countryside. The targeted village has been constructed recently in an area between Qibar and Al-Khalidiyah village in Shirawa district, where displaced people from different Syrian provinces have been settled in the village.
According to SOHR sources, the victim had been displaced from Al-Houtah village in the western countryside of Aleppo.
After this rocket attack, Turkish forces fired several artillery shells on the surrounding areas of Ahris village, Tel Rifaat city and Deir Jamal in the northern countryside of Aleppo. The Turkish bombardment coincided with a Russian patrol which was run on Aleppo-Afrin highway.
It is worth noting that the local council in Afrin city opened “Kuwait Al-Rahma” village on August 30, 2021, with the aim for housing displaced people from various areas across Syria. This development came as a part of the Turkish government’s efforts to accomplish its demographic change project in Afrin canton through allowing and supporting civil organisations and bodies to structure residential units in the towns and villages whose indigenous residents were displaced, after their houses had been destroyed by the “Olive Branch” Operation which took place in the villages and towns of Afrin.
The recently-established village, “Kuwait Al-Rahma”, is located between Qibar and Al-Khalidiyyah villages in Shirawa district in Afrin countryside, while the land where the residential units were established belonged to Yazidi civilians. The village, which was established by a Kuwaiti-Palestinian association known as “Sham Al-Khair” with the participation of some Turkish organisations operating in north Syria region, also accommodated nearly 380 residential units, a mosque, a school, a clinic, a Koranic institute and a shopping mall.
It is also worth noting that Al-Khalidiyah village, which the these residential units were established in, is located on the top of Lelon mountain in Shirawa district. The village is surrounded by several villages, including Maryamin to the east and Qibar to the west.
The village had been destroyed completely by Turkish fighter jets in January 2018, while its inhabitants whose number approximated 100 people who lived in nearly 20 houses were forced to displace then during “Olive Branch” operation. The village’s inhabitants had relied on agriculture and animal husbandry before their village was turned into ruins.