QAMISHLI — The Turkish armed forces and the Syrian National Army forces affiliated with the Syrian opposition have launched a ground offensive in northern Syria east of the Euphrates River and artillery attacks on the towns of Qamishli, Terbespi, Amuda and Derek that have endangered civilians in city centers, villages and border neighborhoods.

Sarah Hussein, 7, and her brother Mohammad, 12, were playing outside their home in the Qadourbek neighborhood in Qamishli when a mortar shell landed near them. “I thought it was a butterfly. I begged my brother to leave it to me; I adore beautiful butterflies. He agreed, in exchange for the ice cream my father had bought me before he went to work,” Sara recounted. “I thought it was a butterfly and I smiled at it, but I soon realized how fast it was flying down,” she told Al-Monitor.

Passers-by and neighbors took Sarah and her brother to Salam Hospital in Qamishli. Her brother lay dead on the bed next to Sarah's. Traumatized, she was unable to describe the horror of her plight.

Her left foot was completely smashed, while her right needed a number of steel plates to be saved. Sarah's aunt moaned, “My brother's home was wrecked. He lost his beloved son at such a young age.”