- Title: LEBANON: Wounded Syrians receive help in Lebanese clinics
- Date: 19th February 2012
- Summary: WOUNDED SYRIAN CHILD CLOSE OF CHILD'S EYES BANDAGED LEG (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) WOUNDED SYRIAN CHILD, HASAN, SAYING: "I was walking to my uncle's house when a bomb exploded in our neighbours house and I got wounded... I was in Qusair... there was shooting and bombs."
- Embargoed: 5th March 2012 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Lebanon, Lebanon
- Country: Lebanon
- Topics: Conflict,International Relations,Health,Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA8K3ROA4MVUVA55I3N3QQQ78EA
- Story Text: Doctors and activists on Saturday (February 18) said the number of wounded Syrians crossing in Lebanon has increased sharply over the last two weeks.
In the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli, hospitals are treating amputee victims and even wounded children who say they have escaped the conflict in Syria.
Nine injured Syrians were brought across the border by the Lebanese Red Cross on Friday alone, according to the Lebanese state news agency.
At Dar al-Zahra hospital, Abu Raed, the head of Syrian Relief High Committee in Lebanon, says that wounded arrive daily.
He says to blame is an intensified offensive by forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the rebel stronghold cities of Homs and Hama.
"In the last fifteen days, we have an increase in the number of the injured arriving, we are receiving sometimes nine injured in one day, sometimes four or five, in the last month it was less but because of the massacres are taking place now in Homs and Baba Amro and Khalidyah the number of injured is increasing," Raed said.
"Most of the wounded from Tal Khalakh and Homs, because its closed areas to the border, but we are facing difficulties in transferring the wounded because of the landmines and the arrest of the wounded by Lebanese security forces... yesterday we received a seven years old child who was shot while he was with his parents."
A ten-year-old child from the Syrian town of Qusair, who gave his name as Hasan, suffered leg wounds.
An activist told Reuters it the boy was hit during shelling by the Syrian army.
"I was walking to my uncle's house when a bomb exploded in our neighbours house and I got wounded...I was in Qusair...there was shooting and bombs."
Lying next to him was another Syrian, who gave his name as Abu.
He has lost both legs and says he was wounded in Homs in December.
"To be honest I don't know, I was in coma for three days and when I came to Lebanon I spent seven more days in coma...one person that was with me died and also there were children with us in the street, some had their legs amputated and others died," Abu said.
Several thousand Syrians have been killed since the start of the 11-month uprising against 42 years of Assad family rule.
For many of the wounded the only chance of treatment is taking the dangerous route to Lebanon, and they are calling for a no-fly zone to protect those who might follow.
"We want no fly zones and humanitarian corridors for the wounded people. To get from my area to the Lebanese border it takes fifteen minutes, but now it takes us two and a half hours to go through the farms," said another wounded man who gave his name as Abu Mohammed and said he was shot by a sniper in Qusair.
A thousand new Syrian refugees were registered in Lebanon in January, bringing the total to nearly 6,400.
More than 3,800 displaced Syrian refugees have registered with the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) in north Lebanon.
Meanwhile the violence continued in Syria on Saturday, where activist said security forces opened fire on a giant rally in the capital Damascus and government forces bombarded Homs and opened a new offensive in Hama. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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