Syrian Democratic Forces carried out a raid on the Public Surgical Hospital in a Sh-heil city in the eastern suburbs of Deir Ez-Zour governorate on March 5, 2021, sabotaged medical equipment and furniture there and arrested eight civilians present in the hospital, including a doctor and three nurses. The arrests were accompanied by verbal and physical assaults against the hospital staff by the SDF personnel, in addition to the burning of cars and motorcycles belonging to hospital personnel.
SNHR condemns such heinous attacks and calls on the SDF to bear responsibility for the incident, carry out investigation and hold perpetrators accountable. We note that no members of the detainees’ families have been informed of their arrests, with the phones of the detained civilians being confiscated, preventing them from contacting their families. SNHR fears that they will be subjected to torture and ultimately classified as forcibly ‘disappeared’, like approximately 85 percent of all detained persons in Syria.
SNHR notes that about 3,784 Syrian citizens, including 14 medical personnel, are still detained or forcibly disappeared in the SDF’s detention centers, constituting a grave threat to their wellbeing given the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
Photo shows furniture sabotaged in a hospital’s room
Photo shows burning of a car belonging to a worker at the hospita
Photo shows an administrative worker of the hospital, Gharboul al Shehadeh, who was physically assaulted by Syrian Democratic Personnel