JINHA

MÊRDÎN – As a police blockade and assault on the largely Kurdish town of Nusaybin, Turkey continued overnight, snipers refused to allow citizens to retrieve their dead. One woman who had to give birth at home due to the blockade is suffering hemorrhaging and is unable to reach the hospital.

In the town of Nusaybin, Turkish state security forces declared a curfew and began an assault on neighborhoods. An explosion took place as a tank attempted to entered the Fırat neighborhood, which lies along the historic Silk Road. Eyewitnesses reported that the tank then began shelling the residential neighborhood, where several civilians have been shot. The count of dead and wounded is still unknown.

A resident named Çiğdem Akçi, unable to be taken to the hospital because of the presence of snipers shooting civilians in the streets, gave birth at home. She began hemorrhaging, but residents have been unable to take her to the hospital.

Snipers in the Fırat neighborhood killed a 50-year-old Nusaybin resident, Ahmet Sönmez, last night. Because of the snipers opening fire on anyone who steps outside, Ahmet’s body is still lying in the street. Another neighborhood resident, 75-year-old Musa Akçin, was also shot by snipers when he went onto the balcony of his home, but has not been taken to the hospital as police attacks continue.

Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Parliamentary representatives and journalists are being denied permission to enter Nusaybin.

(gc-at/fk/cm)