The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) confirmed that at least six children were killed and one girl was badly injured during the overnight heavy violence caused by the US raid in the border town of Atmeh in the northwest of Syria, during which civilian-populated areas were severely damaged.
UNICEF statement follows Thursday’s announcement made by US President Joe Biden about the death of the Islamic State leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi during the American raid in Syria.
Local Atmeh residents said that multiple helicopters were involved in the midnight raid that Pentagon confirmed as a counterterrorism operation, noting that they could also hear explosions and machine gunfire.
Reports say that, during the US raid, al-Qurayshi blew himself up with a suicide vest, killing himself and members of his family, including women and children.
Although neither Biden’s nor the US military’s statements mention any civilian casualties, Syrian media has reported the death of 13 people, including the six children, underscoring they expect the number of victims to increase since some people remained under the debris following the raid.
According to UNICEF statement, violence has heavily escalated in and around Idlib in Syria’s northwest since the year began. Their data shows that nearly 70% of the grave violations recorded last year against children in Syria have occurred in the northwest.
Many families in the area – lots of them internally displaced after having fled violence in other parts of Syria over the years – that is home to 1.2 million children are in need of assistance amid freezing weather conditions and record sub-zero temperatures in Syria and the region.
Due to harsh winter conditions, at least five Syrian children died in the north of Syria in the past two weeks alone.
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