At least three civilians died, and more were wounded in an alleged Turkish airstrike which reportedly struck civilian homes in Barkasa, Syria, according to local media.
Xeber24 reported that two families remained under the rubble as a result of the bombing of Turkish aircraft that targeted the homes of villagers.
According to SotKurdistan, “there was a Turkish aerial bombardment of Afrin and its environs on Thursday. This led to the massacre of two families in the village of Berkashah in the area of Balbala. We learned that the rescue teams recovered the victims from the rubble, most of them were wounded, but we could not obtain the names.”
In a video, Rumaf named three wounded civilians including Rachid Sidou (67 years old). However, other sources named Rachid Sidou as killed (and put his age at 43 or 34, rather than 67). IC Afrin resistance tweeted an image of the victim’s funeral.
According to most sources, Rachid Sidou’s body was only discovered 15 days after the bombardment.
On February 26th the Kurdish news agency ANHA reported that Mr Sidou’s body was found under the rubble two weeks after his house was bombed. It added that no one had been able to reach the demolished building because of continued heavy shelling by the Turkish army.
The transcript of a video for the incident reads as follows:
“Voice off camera asking woman: What kind of shelling was it? Was it artillery or plane?
Woman: It was artillery. We were sleeping at my brother’s house. We usually sleep there and then we go to our house in the morning and spend the daytimes there. In the morning I was in our home and getting breakfast ready I went to the kitchen to get a cup, and I was shot in my foot, and then there was artillery shelling and firearms they were just hitting us. We were all injured. We were all civilians; they hit the civilians, not the military. There is no military there.
Off camera: You mean they’re deliberately hitting the civilians?
Woman: Yes, they demolished the civilians’ homes. They demolished half the village. There are still people there under siege we’ve spoken to them they’re still shelling the houses. There is a cave people are taking shelter in because the village is still being hit because they know there are civilians they won’t’ let anyone come out alive.”
It must be noted that this video transcript was also reported in the incident in Kafr Shila, 8th February 2018. It is unclear where this video belonged.
According to Afrin Now, the wounded were taken to Afrin Hospital, two of them in stable conditions and the others in critical condition.
The local time of the incident is unknown.
