Charity:

Daesh, US trauma to haunt Raqqah kids for decades

Rasa - A charity group has warned that children fleeing Syria's Raqqah need decades to heal from their psychological injuries after being "tormented" by Daesh's brutal acts in the terrorist group’s stronghold as well as US strikes.

News ID: 432004

Date: 28 August 2017 - 19:19

RNA - Save the Children interviewed some of them and their families who have fled Raqqah, recounting what they saw under the Daesh rule as well as the death of their neighbors in US airstrikes on the city's residential buildings.

"Raqqah's children might look normal on the outside but inside many are tormented by what they've seen," the NGO's Syria director Sonia Khush said on Monday.

"The children of Raqqah didn't ask for the nightmares and memories of seeing loved ones die right in front of them," Khush added.

Raashida, a 13-year-old girl who escaped with her family three months ago to a displacement camp north of Raqqah, was one of the children interviewed by the NGO.

Daesh "beheaded people and left their bodies on the ground. We saw this and I couldn't handle it," she said.

"I wanted to sleep but I couldn't when I remembered what I saw. And I wouldn't sleep - I would stay awake because of how scared I was," Raashida added.

Khush stressed the importance of providing the children with psychological support to ensure their mental wellbeing.

"It's crucial that the children who've made it out alive are provided with psychological support to help them deal with the trauma of witnessing senseless violence and brutality," she said.

"We risk condemning a generation of children to a lifetime of suffering unless their mental health needs are addressed," the NGO's Syria director added.

The charity also said US airstrikes left families "facing an impossible decision: stay and risk being bombed or leave and risk being shot at by Daesh or stepping on a landmine."

The US and its allies have been conducting airstrikes against what are said to be Daesh targets inside Syria since September 2014 without any authorization from the Damascus government or a UN mandate.

The military alliance has repeatedly been accused of targeting and killing civilians. It has also been largely incapable of fulfilling its declared aim of destroying Daesh.

The city of Raqqah, which lies on the northern bank of the Euphrates River, was overrun by Daesh terrorists in March 2013 and proclaimed the center for most of the Takfiri group's administrative and control tasks.

In June, US-backed militiamen from the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which mostly includes Kurdish fighters, launched an operation aimed at pushing Daesh out of Raqqah.

Observers believe Raqqah is about to give a foothold to the US for its potentially long-term stay in Syria. In recent months, the US military has shipped massive volumes of weapons to Kurdish-populated areas which have emerged as Washington's new allies in the region.

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