Gunmen stormed a hospital in northern Syria where a baby girl is receiving treatment after being born under the rubble of her family’s home destroyed in the earthquake, a hospital official said on Tuesday, adding that the attackers beat the clinic director.
The official denied reports on social media that Monday night’s attack was an attempt to kidnap the little girl, named Aya – “a sign from God” in Arabic. Aya has been in hospital for a few hours after the February 6 earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria. His mother, father and four brothers died in the disaster.
Aya has been followed closely since her birth and people from all over the world have offered to help her.
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The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisals, said the hospital director had suspected a nurse who was photographing Aya of planning to kidnap her and kick him out of the hospital. The nurse returned hours later accompanied by gunmen who beat up the director, the official said. The director’s wife breastfed Aya, her doctor previously said.
Upon arriving at the hospital, the gunmen told local police officers protecting the girl that they were prosecuting the director for firing their friend and that they weren’t interested in Aya, according to the official.
Several people had turned up falsely claiming to be Aya’s relatives, prompting local police officers to protect her, the doctor said earlier.
A baby girl, born under the rubble of the earthquake in Syria, is cared for inside an incubator at a children’s hospital in the city of Afrin, Syria, on February 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)
Aya’s mother died after giving birth to her in the aftermath of the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria. Her father and four brothers were also killed in the earthquake.
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Aya may be able to leave the hospital as soon as Tuesday or Wednesday, according to her great-uncle, Saleh al-Badran. She said the baby’s paternal aunt, whom she recently gave birth to and survived the earthquake, will raise her.
Rescuers in the northern Syrian town of Jinderis discovered the dark-haired girl more than 10 hours after the earthquake, as they were digging through the rubble of the five-story apartment building where her parents lived.
Buried under concrete, the baby was still tied by his umbilical cord to his mother, Afraa Abu Hadiya. The little girl was rushed to hospital in nearby Afrin, where she has been treated ever since.
The devastating earthquake followed by a series of aftershocks that hit southeastern Turkey and northern Syria reduced many of the cities inhabited by millions of people to fragments of concrete and twisted metal. More than 35,000 people have been killed, a toll that is expected to rise substantially as search teams find more bodies.
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The earthquake destroyed dozens of housing units in Jinderis town, where Aya’s family had lived since 2018.
Aya’s father, Abdullah Turki Mleihan, was originally from Khsham village in eastern Deir el-Zour province but left in 2014 after the Islamic State group captured their village, al-Badran said , an uncle of Aya’s father.
