JINHA

ŞIRNEX – A 12-year-old boy and a mother trying to save her infant are among the latest women and children killed in the ongoing police assault on the Kurdish town of Cizre, Turkey.

For eight days now, Turkish state forces have maintained a curfew in the Kurdish town of Cizre. Snipers shoot anyone who goes outside and police refuse to allow ambulances to reach the wounded. The death toll continues to rise in the town, with several children shot in the last 24 hours.

Photographs spread on social media depicting the bloody aftermath of security forces opening fire on a residential neighborhood. Zeynep Taşkın, mother of eight, was trying to protect her one-year-old baby, Berxwedan, as security forces raked their home with gunfire. The baby survived the attack with serious wounds to his arm and leg, but Zeynep could not be saved.

Last night, snipers shot 12-year-old Selman Ağar in the street. Despite citizens’ attempts to treat his serious wounds, Selman lost his life at home as police have blocked ambulance access.

In the Nur neighborhood, 15-year-old boy Bünyamin İvci headed out to get ice from a neighbor’s house after electricity went out. Police shot Bünyamin from an armored vehicle. Residents brought Bünyamin to the Botan Hospital, where emergency operators had told them he could be treated. The citizens, fearing that police would open fire on them, left Bünyamin alone at the hospital doors. There, police executed him with a bullet to the head.

Clashes continued in the town this morning. A fire, started by a police gas canister, is spreading in the Nur neighborhood. Police are firing on anyone trying to extinguish it.

(mg/ma-zd/fk/cm)