Kurdish boy screams ‘stop the burning’ after he’s ‘scorched by white phosphorus’ in Turkish attack branded ‘war crime’
A KURDISH child screamed "stop the burning" after having his skin melted by white phosphorus allegedly used by Turkish forces in Syria.
Staff at the hospital in Tal Tamir, in the northeast of the war zone, were reduced to tears by 13-year-old Mohammed Hamid Mohammed’s injuries.
Kurdish authorities are alleging Turkish forces have been using the deadly toxins such as white phosphorus and napalm in the eight day old conflict.
Similar photographs and videos showing Kurdish civilians with horrifying burns have emerged on social media in the last 24 hours.
One picture showed a young boy in a hospital in Hasakah with burns covering his face.
'I BEG YOU. STOP THE BURNING'
A Kurdish statement said: "The Turkish aggression is using all available weapons against Ras al-Ain.
"Faced with the obvious failure of his plan, Erdogan is resorting to weapons that are globally banned such as phosphorus and napalm.”
This comes after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday agreed to the five-day truce to allow for the withdrawal of Kurdish forces from the region.
However, there are reports today that airstrikes by Turkey have killed another five civilians in northeast Syria despite the ceasefire agreement.
No less than 13 hours the truce, shelling and smoke could be seen around the Kurdish-held city of Ras al-Ayn - near the hospital where Mohammad is being treated - this morning, it has been reported.
In the days before the ceasefire, Turkey had been intensifying its assault on Kurdish-held city of Ras al-Ain.
Its forces have been repeatedly accused of using white phosphorus against women and children in civilian areas of the town.
Schoolboy Mohammed suffered his burns after a Turkish air strike struck his town on Wednesday at midnight, his father told the Times.
After being shown the disturbing images of the boy, Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a British chemical weapons expert, said: “This very much looks like it was caused by white phosphorus.
“In 24 hours I have been shown more photographs of these kinds of burn than at any recent stage in Syria’s war.”
In a damming report today, Amnesty International detailed evidence of war crimes and a “shameful disregard for civilian life” by Turkey and Turkish-backed forces.
'BLATANT WAR CRIMES'
While the non-profit does not detail evidence of chemical weapons being used by Erdogan’s soldiers, it does document accounts of violence being used against civilians.
According to Amnesty International’s Secretary General Kumi Naidoo, Turkish forces have “wreaked havoc on the lives of Syrian civilians.”
The report contains witness accounts taken from October 12 to 16 in northern Syria.
Among the most harrowing accounts, is an eight-year-old girl having her leg amputated after a bombing in Qamishli.
Amnesty also details the killing of Kurdish politician Hevrin Khalaf which it has branded a “blatant war crime.”
SCREAMING IN AGONY
Meanwhile a spokesman for the Syrian Democratic Forces, the autonomous Kurdish region's de facto army, called on international organisations to send in experts.
"We urge international organisations to send their teams to investigate some wounds sustained in attacks," Mustefa Bali said on social media.
"The medical facilities in NE Syria lack expert teams," he added.
Yesterday, British-based war monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), said it could not confirm the allegation.
But it said it had seen a spike in burn wounds over the last two days from casualties, including civilians in areas near the Syrian/Turkey border.
Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar today denied the charges.
TURKISH DENIAL
He said: "It is a fact known by everyone that there are no chemical weapons in the inventory of the Turkish Armed Forces.”
Napalm was infamously used by US forces in the Vietnam War and are mixtures of a gelling agent and a volatile petrochemical which can ignite and stick to the skin.
White phosphorus can be used to create a smoke screen or as a battlefield marker.
Yet it can also be deployed as a deadly incendiary weapon.
Turkish troops and Turkish-backed Syrian fighters launched their offensive against Kurdish forces in northern Syria a week ago, two days after Trump suddenly announced he was withdrawing the US from the area.
Ankara has long argued the Kurdish fighters are nothing more than an extension of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, which has waged a guerrilla campaign inside Turkey since the 1980s.