28-03-2024 08:10 PM Jerusalem Timing

Snipers in Syria Target Pregnant Bellies in Exchange for ’Pack of Cigarettes’

Snipers in Syria Target Pregnant Bellies in Exchange for ’Pack of Cigarettes’

The UK-based Al-Hayat newspaper posted on Saturday several interviews made by British media outlets with a surgeon volunteered to work in Syria.

Syria: Al-Nusra Front militantThe UK-based Al-Hayat newspaper posted on Saturday several interviews made by British media outlets with a surgeon volunteered to work in Syria.

The surgeon David Knott narrated terrifying stories of snipers "playing the game" and firing their bullets on civilians, including the bellies of pregnant women, in order to get a pack of cigarettes as a reward.

Knott, who had just returned to Britain from Syria where he volunteered to work for five weeks, stated that he experienced a new phenomenon in the kind of injuries that were brought to the hospital in one of the Syrian cities (unidentified for security reasons).

The newspaper quoted The Times daily as reporting that during one day of the week, several wounded in the chest by sniper bullets were brought to the hospital, and the next day all of the wounded brought were shot in the neck.

"Upon receiving the first wounded victim in the day, we used to take notice that the rest of the injuries along the day will be in a specific location of the body," Knott told the newspaper, adding: "It was a game. We've heard the snipers playing to win a pack of cigarettes if hitting the right number of goals."

The British doctor said that the snipers were mercenaries who came from far countries to fight in Syria.

He said the hospital where he was working had received in one day more than six pregnant women shot by snipers, and the next day it received another two in their advanced months of pregnancy.

"The last two women survived after the surgery, but the fetus died. In one of the cases, a bullet pierced the baby 's head," Knott explained.

"All women were shot in the womb, thus it is the point where snipers were pointing at. I cannot even describe the horror of it... This is the first time I see something like that. It was a deliberate act . it's a hell beyond hell," doctor Knott underlined.