16-year-old Xilûd El Mistefa was injured as a result of an attack carried out by the invading Turkish army in the northern Syrian district of Ain Issa on Thursday.

The minor, who had three tendons of a foot torn, was taken to the Raqqa Hospital for treatment.

Ain Issa is located south of the Turkish occupation zone in northern Syria and is of strategic importance as a link between the self-governing Euphrates regions with Kobanê in its center and Jazira. Since 2019, the city has been in the crosshairs of Turkey and its Islamist proxy forces as part of a war of attrition, with phases of high intensity alternating with phases of low intensity. Dozens of villages in the region have already been destroyed and depopulated by Turkish military violence. A Turkish air offensive last November reduced large parts of the infrastructure to rubble and ash.

One of the areas occupied by Turkey in northern Syria is the region of Girê Spî. The formerly multicultural, self-governing region was occupied by Turkey in October 2019 and has been controlled by the Turkish intelligence service and jihadist mercenaries since. According to the Girê Spî Cantol Council, more than 100,000 people had to flee the region after the Turkish invasion. People loyal to the Turkish regime are resettled in their place as the Turkish state is pursuing an intensive settlement policy, systematically expelling the Kurdish population from the occupied areas.

The Turkish air terror, which Ankara justifies with the right to self-defence, specifically targeted the vital infrastructure of the civilian population of northern and eastern Syria. Attacks on the civilian population or civilian infrastructure constitute war crimes. The international community ignores this open breach of international law and lets Ankara have its way in its war against the Kurds without consequence. Not only in Syria, but also in Iraq, Turkey is given a permanent green light for war crimes.