March 29, 2024

Stop the carnage in Syria, doctors plead

The situation of civilians under siege by the Assad regime in Syria is even worse than under ISIS, they claim.

The situation of civilians under siege by the Assad regime in Syria is even worse than under ISIS, the Islamic extremists, say Syrian doctors. In an op-ed in the New York Times, two doctors claim that at least 560 doctors and nurses have been killed and 155 medical facilities have been attacked since the war began.

Much of the destruction is due to barrel bombs, 44-gallon drums filled with explosives and shrapnel launched from helicopters. “The bombs explode with terrific force and breadth, amputating limbs and driving shrapnel throughout the body. One doctor we interviewed was still horrified by the indelible image of a mother and daughter whose bodies were blown apart while their hands remained clasped together.”

The doctors, Leonard S. Rubenstein, of Johns Hopkins University, and M. Zaher Sahloul, president of the Syrian American Medical Society, claim that the regime’s military is deliberately targeting clinics, field hospitals and ambulances. “When work in a field hospital becomes like death, it is difficult to imagine how life has any chance at all,” they write.

They have called upon the Obama administration to set up humanitarian buffer zones in northern and southern Syria so that civilians can be cared for.

Their words are echoed by a Syrian doctor writing on the blog Syria Deeply:

“We are doctors. We live to help and heal people – not to watch them die. Every one of us living in opposition-held territory of Syria has made a conscious decision: despite all the risks, we will stay and treat whoever needs us… As bombers tear across the sky on their way to dropping their deadly cargo, I wish that the urgency that moved the U.S. and other governments to bomb ISIS was matched by an urgency to save the lives of civilians. Please do not wait until there is no one left to save.”

https://www.bioedge.org/images/2008images/palm_of_hand_dr.jpg
Creative commons
ethics of war
Syria
targeting doctors
warfare