Turkey faces scrutiny over alleged use of white phosphorus on children in northern Syria

A global chemical weapons watchdog says it is ‘collecting information’ on claims Turkish forces used white phosphorus, as Ankara denies wrongdoing

The injured are rushed to a hospital in Tal Tamr during the Turkish offensive against Kurdish-controlled areas of northeastern Syria (AFP/Getty)

Claims by Kurdish medics that Turkey may have used white phosphorus on children in northeastern Syria are being assessed by a global chemical weapons watchdog.

At least six civilians injured in airstrikes on the border town of Ras al-Ayn were treated for severe burns, leading to the comments by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

The OPCW told The Independent it had been “made aware of the situation in northern Syria” and was collating information about the allegations.

Turkey's foreign ministry said Turkey has no chemical weapons in its inventory, dismissing the claims as "flagrant slanders" in a Friday statement to local media.

However, Syrian medics in the northeastern city of Hasakah, where the six are being cared for, shared photos and medical reports with The Independent showing blistering burns across their faces, torsos and arms.

The doctors say they suspect the patients, the youngest of whom is just four years old, may have been exposed to substances such as white phosphorus in Ras al-Ayn.

The strategic border town has been the frontline of Turkey’s week-long incursion against Kurdish forces in Syria in which more than 70 civilians have been killed and 300,000 others displaced, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based monitoring group. 

On Friday, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces accused Turkey and its Syrian rebel allies of shelling civilian areas there, in violation of a US-brokered ceasefire in northern Syria.

A severely burnt child being treated in Hasakah – medics think he may have been the victim of a chemical attack (Kurdish Red Crescent)

The truce aims to allow immediate humanitarian access to some of the hardest-hit areas, where rights groups said Turkey and its allies had likely committed war crimes including bombing civilian areas and execution-style killings.

Turkey has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and on Friday, Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan rejected reports Turkish forces had broken the truce or that the fighting was ongoing.

The OPCW, meanwhile, said that they had been notified about the concerns in Syria.

“The OPCW is aware of the situation in northern Syria and is collecting information at OPCW Headquarters with regard to the alleged use of chemical weapons,” a statement to The Independent read.

“So far, the OPCW has not yet determined the credibility of these allegations.”

Medics in Syria said children aged four, six and 17 years old were among the six civilians who they believe may have been exposed to white phosphorus, a chemical that can burn through flesh to the bone.

The substance can be used legally for non-harmful activities such as signalling but is banned for use as an incendiary weapon. 

The OPCW said "it has no indication so far of the use of any specific toxic chemical as a weapon".

The medical reports shared with The Independent detail second and third-degree burns across various parts of the patients’ body including the face, chest, back and hips.  

They mention two different instances of airstrikes on the 13 and 17 of October in Ras al-Ayn.

Dr Sherwan Berry, a Kurdish Red Crescent spokesperson, said: "We are trying to investigate the possible use of chemical weapons because there are burns and other symptoms like difficulty breathing."

He added there were more cases that had been transferred to northern Iraq.

Dr Faris Hamo, who was on the team treating the six, said they lacked testing equipment.

“Everything is possible because of the wounds but we lack the labs to confirm, we are waiting on analysis,” he said.

Turkey launched a controversial cross-border incursion last Wednesday to build a 20-mile deep buffer zone against Kurdish forces they deem terrorists for their links to the outlawed PKK in Turkey.

In a lower estimate of the death toll compared to the SOHR figures, the health authority of the Kurdish-led administration in the region put the civilian death toll at 218, including 21 children.

Turkish authorities say eight civilians have been killed and 150 injured on their side in shelling from Kurdish forces.

Ankara has pressed ahead despite faced mounting global condemnation for the operation.

The US slapped sanctions on the country and many states including UK, Germany, France and the Netherlands, have suspended arms sales to Turkey.

Critics have accused president Donald Trump of greenlighting the offensive and abandoning the Kurds, who lost thousands of soldiers helping the US defeat Isis.

Vice president Mike Pence flew to Turkey on Thursday to battle out a ceasefire deal with Mr Erdogan, but it has so far failed to hold.

Under the terms, Kurdish forces are expected to withdraw from the border but Kurdish officials said it was impossible to pull back while they were still under fire.

“Despite the agreement to halt the fighting, air and artillery attacks continue to target the positions of fighters, civilian settlements and the hospital in Serekaniya/Ras al-Ayn,” tweeted Mustafa Bali, a spokesperson for Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.

“Turkey is violating the ceasefire agreement by continuing to attack the town since last night,” he added.

A few days before the operation began, Mr Trump announced US troops would withdraw from northern Syria and not hinder an imminent Turkish attack.

Mr Erdogan said on Friday he had agreed with the US that Turkey would be permitted to build a 300-mile long and 20-mile wide “safe zone” within northern Syria.

Turkey has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, saying in a statement they are “conducting an extremely meticulous operation without inflicting even the slightest harm to civilians”.

But Amnesty International said it had “damning evidence” that Turkey and its Syrian armed allies carried out indiscriminate attacks on residential areas, including on a home, a bakery and a school. Amnesty said these could amount to war crimes.

The rights group highlighted several instances of possible violations of international law including a 12 October Turkish airstrike next to a school in Salhiye, where civilians fleeing the conflict had sought shelter.

The group said that the frontline was at least a mile away and that four people including two children had been killed.

“They looked like charcoal,” an aid worker at the scene told Amnesty. “The other two people killed were older men, they looked older than 50. Honestly, I am still in shock.”

A severely burnt young man being treated in Hasakah (Kurdish Red Crescent)

Another attack saw an airstrike hit a convoy of around 400 civilians travelling between Qamishli and Ras al-Ayn on 13 October. Amnesty said that a small contingent of fighters guarding the convoy did not justify the attack.

The airstrike, which was caught on camera, killed six civilians, including one journalist.

A reporter at the scene described it as “an absolute massacre”.

Amnesty also investigated a mortar attack on a home in Qamishli which killed an 11-year-old boy and ripped off the leg of his eight-year-old sister.

Finally, they detailed the 12 October “ambush” and “grisly murder” of Hervin Khalaf, a Kurdish politician, along the international highway linking Raqqa to the border town of Qamishli.

According to witnesses and footage of the scene Amnesty analysed, she was dragged out of her car, beaten and shot dead “in cold blood” by fighters from Ahrar al-Sharqiya, part of the Syrian National Army, a coalition of Syrian armed groups equipped and supported by Turkey.

A man with severe facial burns is treated in Hasakah (Kurdish Red Crescent)

A medical report shared with The Independent showed she was hit by multiple gunshot wounds to the head, face and back. She also had fractures to her legs, face and skull, and her skin had been detached from her skull as a result of being dragged by the hair.

“Turkish military forces and their allies have displayed an utterly callous disregard for civilian lives, launching unlawful deadly attacks in residential areas that have killed and injured civilians,” said Kumi Naidoo, Amnesty International’s secretary-general.

“We call on Turkey again to end violations, hold perpetrators accountable, and protect civilians living under their control. Turkey cannot evade responsibility by outsourcing war crimes to armed groups,” he added.

Aid workers and civilians from the towns caught up in the fighting attempted to reach encircled Ras al-Ayn on Friday to retrieve the dead and wounded but were forced to turn back.

British volunteer Dana Ellis, 32 from London who was with the convoy of several hundred people, said they walked a kilometre before finally coming to a halt outside the town when they were warned Turkish-backed forces would fire on them.

Along the way, Ellis said they stumbled across a village, which had been flattened in the fighting.

"The was village smouldering, we spent two hours pulling bodies out of the rubble," she told The Independent, adding that in total they retrieved ten corpses.

"The bodies were in terrible condition and we had to leave two because we didn't have heavy machine to pull them out from under the rubble."

"People are tired, they are hungry but they are defiant," she added.

There are also concerns the offensive will see the resurgence of the Isis, as Kurdish forces redirect their troops guarding prisons and camps to the frontline.

The Kurds were holding at least 10,000 Isis fighters and their families across camps and prisons before the fighting erupted.

Over 800 Isis affiliates managed to escape from Ain Issa camp, after the SDF lost control of it.

It’s now empty and most of the 12,000 inhabitants remain unaccounted for.

Officials in al-Hol camp, home to 70,000 people, many of whom are the wives and widows of Isis fighters, told The Independent that 26 families had attempted to break free on Thursday night as the fighting drew close but had been reprehended.

“The situation is under control but there are riots, chaos, and protests in the camp,” said a site official.