Abou Shivan could only stare at Othman Hospital in the Kurdish-majority Ashrafieh neighbourhood of Aleppo in Syria. Once considered the best medical centre in the area, the building, next to his mini market, stood in tatters, its windows shattered and walls riddled with bullet holes and blackened by soot. “What a shame,” a resident said, as he walked behind the stunned shop owner.
The hospital was hit during heavy clashes last week between the Syrian army and Kurdish fighters affiliated with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a well-armed, Kurdish-led force. The violence quickly turned the streets of the Ashrafieh neighbourhood, as well as the Sheikh Maqsoud and Bani Zaid areas, into a deadly urban battlefield.
The SDF had long controlled those three overwhelmingly Kurdish neighbourhoods of Aleppo. But after days of fighting, the Syrian army announced it had taken control of them, forcing the remaining Kurdish fighters out of the area.
A ceasefire was agreed on shortly after between the two sides. On Sunday, when The National visited Ashrafieh and Sheikh Maqsoud, official Syrian army checkpoints had replaced those of the SDF.
Abou Shivan, who used a pseudonym, is a Kurd who has lived in Ashrafieh for 25 years. He said he left his home on Tuesday under heavy shelling, as the situation spiralled out of control. But Adnan Othman, owner of Othman hospital, and his nephew, Ali Othman, refused to leave the site, he said.
“They s
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