ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A Kurdish student was killed during overnight clashes between the new Syrian authorities and armed groups loyal to former president Bashar al-Assad, a family member told Rudaw on Friday.
“I had contact with her until around 1:00am today. Later, she was struck and killed by bullets,” said Adil Kasho, whose daughter Shinda Adil Kasho was killed.
She was in the first year of medical school at Latakia University and was hit by stray bullets while lying in bed, according to her father.
"I had rented an apartment for her and her sister, who is a third-year medical student. Two of her friends were living with them as well," recounted the heartbroken father. He added that he had been joking with his daughter just moments before receiving the devastating news of her death.
He recalled telling them not to go out to avoid the risk of being shot, yet she was tragically shot while lying in her bed.
At least 70 people were killed and dozens of others were wounded in clashes between Syrian forces and elements that support the former regime in Alawite-majority areas on the western coast, a stronghold of the Assad family, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Authorities imposed curfews in areas affected by the unrest and Damascus deployed reinforcements to curb the advance of armed groups who reportedly had taken control of some territory.
No official figures have been released regarding the death toll.
The new authorities in Damascus, headed by Ahmed al-Sharaa, the leader of the Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) rebel group that spearheaded the offensive that drove Assad out of the country in December, have come under repeated criticism by minority groups who say they are being excluded from discussions about the country’s future.
Clashes have also broken out in the south of the country and Israel has threatened a military incursion to defend Druze communities.
Updated with father's comments on March 8, 2025
