- Title: Displaced Kurds flee to Syria-Iraq border after Turkish offensive
- Date: 21st October 2019
- Summary: SEMALKA, SYRIA (OCTOBER 21, 2019) (REUTERS) CHILD FROM DISPLACED KURDISH FAMILY WAITING TO CROSS OVER TO IRAQ KURDISH GIRL RESTING / MORE DISPLACED KURDS IN BACKGROUND DISPLACED KURDS GATHERED NEAR CAR PARKED BY SIDE OF ROAD DISPLACED KURDISH GIRL KURDISH FAMILIES WAITING ON SIDE OF ROAD DISPLACED KURDISH BOY KURDISH FORCES AT CHECKPOINT DISPLACED KURDISH MEN FUAD GLAO (LEFT) AND SULEIMAN MOHAMAD STANDING BY ROAD (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) DISPLACED KURD, FUAD GLAO, SAYING: "What should I do? Where should I go? Now we want to escape, but where should we go? We don't have a solution, where should we go? Nothing is left. I have two boys and my wife. Where can I go without them?" KURDISH FORCES CHECKING CAR AT CHECKPOINT / ROAD SIGN READING (Arabic and English): "Semalka" (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) DISPLACED KURD, SULEYMAN MOHAMAD, SAYING: "On Wednesday at four o'clock we were hit by air strikes, and we were forced to flee our house from these air strikes. The whole house is gone. And we are a family here. I have three children, that's five (people total) including myself and my wife. My brother and sister are also with me, including my cousin. Where can we go? We went to Tel Tamer and there was nowhere to go. We went to schools and there was nowhere to sit. It is too crowded. We came to Qamishli and we were told we have to pay 50,000 Syrian lira per month for a house. We don't have any money, where can we go? We fled (inaudible)." VEHICLES DRIVING NEAR BORDER FLAG AT CHECKPOINT BEFORE BORDER DISPLACED KURDS GATHERED ON SIDE OF ROAD (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) DISPLACED KURD, ZAINAB RASSUL, SAYING: "Well, the future is gone. We left our future. A year of college has been lost. I left and came here, just so we can save these children. My mother and the children." DISPLACED KURDISH WOMEN TRUCK DRIVING ON ROAD
- Embargoed: 4th November 2019 16:15
- Keywords: Syria Security Border Turkey Iraq Kurds Displaced
- Location: SEMALKA, SYRIA
- City: SEMALKA, SYRIA
- Country: Syria
- Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace
- Reuters ID: LVA001B21J41Z
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Having slept for 10 days in schools and overpriced apartments since bombs rained on his house in a Turkish assault, labourer Suleiman Mohamed and his family only want to reach neighbouring Iraq.
They are among tens of thousands of people in northern Syria who have fled since Turkish forces started an advance south on October 9.
His hometown of Ras al Ain got hit in Turkish air strikes, part of an assault after U.S. President Donald Trump announced his forces were withdrawing from the area, giving Ankara more room to pursue its Kurdish enemy without the risk of clashing directly with the Americans.
Authorities have kept the border crossing open for humanitarian shipments and trade but stopped private family trips, said a spokesman of immigration department of Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) which has been controlling the northeast.
Mohamed and a dozen of other displaced people are prepared to spend the night in the open at the crossing of Semalka, until they are eventually allowed into Iraqi Kurdistan.
Last week Turkey paused its offensive for five days under a deal with Washington. The truce will expire Tuesday (October 22).
Turkey views the YPG, part of the SDF, as a terrorist organisation linked to Kurdish separatist insurgents at home.
(Production: Antony Paone, Nadeen Ebrahim) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2019. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
