Killed by a Russian bomb, a five-year-old visiting relatives in Syria
Source: Guardian UK
Raghats mother thought her village was a safe distance from Isis but Syrians accuse Russia of targeting civilian areas
Five-year-old Raghat loved singing, nail polish, teasing her toddler sister, the alphabet she was starting to learn at nursery, and goofing for the camera. In the last photos of her, taken barely 10 minutes before the Russian bombs landed, she shows off a new bracelet and freshly painted nails with glee, then squeezes a kiss from her squirming baby sister.
I only took my children back to Syria for six days, says her mother, Suheer, her eyes welling up as she plays a video on her smartphone, bringing a shadow of her daughter momentarily back to life. Her son Hossein, only four himself, leans in to smooth away her tears. Too young to really understand why his sister has vanished, he comforts his mother with a soft patter of mummy, no, mummy.
Raghat now lies miles away, across the Turkish border in Syria, buried in the town of Habeet, near Idlib, where she died in October alongside her grandfather and her cousin Ahmad. When the attack finished she was found wrapped in Ahmads arms. A 28-year-old maths teacher, he had tried to race her to shelter when the first bomb fell.
They made it to a small dugout in the garden, but a bomb landed just beside the entrance, and Ahmads body was not a strong enough shield. Raghat survived the first blast, but died on the back of a motorbike as her family raced her to hospital. We were supposed to be going home the next day, Suheer says. My husband never saw his daughter again.
Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/04/killed-after-posing-for-pictures-the-five-year-old-victim-of-russias-airstrikes-on-syria
Coalition airstrikes led by the US have also killed civilians, but have stricter rules of engagement. There have been no reports of civilian casualties from the airstrikes launched on the al-Omar oilfield by British Tornado jets this week.
Syrians say Russians are not only reckless about choosing targets, but also appear to be intentionally bombing some civilian areas.
Survivors, doctors treating the injured, and local commanders believe the Sukhoi jets, flying from a new airbase in the coastal Latakia province, are hitting homes in a deliberate campaign to break fighters morale and depopulate swaths of the countryside.
They are targeting the civilians at night, and mostly frontlines during the day, says Abu Hussain, a Turkmen rebel commander, a high-rank defector from the Syrian army. Its because they dont want anyone to film the jets bombing at night, so you cant prove their identity.
RGinNJ
(1,020 posts)yeoman6987
(14,449 posts)Hopefully others who now live outside Syria wait to go back. Please!!!!
RGinNJ
(1,020 posts)randome
(34,845 posts)Unless Russia really is deliberately targeting civilians, this shows that it's impossible to target only the 'bad guys' -unless one gives up and backs away. A viable 'strategy' on its own, of course, but not if the goal is to stop ISIS.
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KG
(28,751 posts)let's spread the misery around....
yeoman6987
(14,449 posts)You do know Syrians are trying to get out of their country to get to Germany, France, America, anywhere safe from Syria!
enough
(13,256 posts)killed by airstrikes from all countries including the US, every day, until it the reality sinks in.
FLPanhandle
(7,107 posts)Civil War, ISIS, bombings, etc.
No fucking way I'd endanger my young children by purposely going on a visit there.
FLPanhandle
(7,107 posts)Still, I would never bring my children into a war zone.
jamzrockz
(1,333 posts)But to kill the terrorists killing and raping hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians, sometimes innocent people like her die in the process. But her death would have been in vain if the Syrian people fighting the foreign backed terrorists fail to take back the country.
RIP little one. The SAA will destroy the bastards who invaded your homeland and turned it upside down
killbotfactory
(13,566 posts)tabasco
(22,974 posts)"Don't take kids on vacation to a war zone."