The districts of Til Temir and Zirgan in the northern Syrian canton of Heseke have been under heavy attack since early morning.

The attacks injured three farmers working in their field near the village of Til Cuma in Til Temir region.

The farmers, identified as Lûey Xelîl Hemad (20), Ridwan Tirkî El-Tihêmî (30) and Eymen Elî El-Ehmed (25), have been taken to Şehit Lêgerîn Hospital in Til Temir.

Speaking to ANHA in hospital, Xelil Hemad stated the following regarding the attack: “We were on our way to the field to harvest wheat but we were forced to return due to a bombardment. After a while, we returned to the field and we were subjected to a rain of cannon balls, injuring me and others.”

On the other hand, reports say that the bombardment has caused a fire in the fields in the village of Ebush, located between Til Temir and Zirgan.

The history of Til Temir

The Khabur river extends along the Khabur valley in the northeast of Syria. Here, where the town of Til Temir (Kurdish name: Girê Xurma), a reflection of the population mosaic of Syria, is located, the Nestorians - Assyrians from (Hakkari - who had fled to northern Iraq during the genocide of Christians in the Ottoman Empire between 1914 and 1918, settled in 1933. The League of Nations in Geneva awarded them the settlement area. Their second exodus was preceded by the Simele massacre: some 9000 Assyrians, mainly men and young people, were murdered in various villages in the Duhok region. The village of Simele, which was particularly affected, gave its name to this genocide. There, under the leadership of the Iraqi military, some 350 people died.

The Assyrians from Hakkari founded 33 villages in the flat valley of the Khabur, while Chaldean Christians settled in another three villages. Before the beginning of the Syrian war in 2011, about 20,000 Assyrian Christians were still living here. In almost every village there was a church. Now there are not even 1,000 people left. Because of the jihadists, almost all the inhabitants have fled abroad, most of them going to Canada, Australia or the US. Some of the villages are completely empty. Those who stayed are mostly elderly people. Also, several hundred internally displaced persons from other regions of the country now live in Til Temir.