Survivor of Kharab Ishk massacre recounts details: attacks were brutal

On January 25, factions of the interim government committed a massacre in the village of Kharab Ishk, located in the southeastern countryside of Kobani, after shelling civilians’ homes with heavy weapons, artillery, and drones. The attack resulted in the killing of an entire family, with only one girl surviving Fatima Haj Mahmoud.

The massacre followed intense attacks on the rural areas of Kobani using various types of weapons, during which civilians were directly targeted. In the village of Qasmiya, one family was targeted, resulting in the death of one person and the injury of three others. In Kharab Ishk village, a massacre left five people dead and five wounded, most of them women and children.

In this context, ANHA agency spoke with the sole survivor of the Kharab Ishk village massacre, Fatima Haj Mahmoud, who lost her legs as a result of the attack. She is a first-year law student at Kobani University.

Fatima said she had been studying in the city of Kobani when the attacks intensified, prompting her family to ask her to return to the village so they could be together. She explained that while they were asleep, their home was targeted. “When I opened my eyes, I saw smoke, and my face was burning,” she said. When she tried to remove the rubble from her legs, she saw them and realized they had been amputated. She began screaming and calling for help.

She confirmed that due to the intensity of the shelling, villagers were unable to evacuate or rescue her immediately, nor could they retrieve any of her family members from the house. On the second day, after the shelling subsided, she was evacuated, while five members of her family remained under the rubble.

The survivor described the attacks as brutal assaults that did not discriminate between anything or anyone. She stressed that the massacre they endured is not the first in the history of the Kurdish people, adding that what is happening represents renewed attempts to assimilate and annihilate the Kurds. She emphasized that the Kurdish people are strong and will resist and prevail through their willpower.

In conclusion, Fatima said that her decision to enroll in the law department at Kobani University was to fulfill her parents’ wishes, and that she will continue her studies in the Kurdish language. “The Kurdish language is being targeted for erasure by the enemy,” she said, adding that she will defend the rights of the Kurdish people with all her strength by realizing her dream of becoming a lawyer.

ANHA