'They almost killed my child': Women in Syria's Roj camp describe night of gunfire and fear

'They almost killed my child': Women in Syria's Roj camp describe night of gunfire and fear 'They almost killed my child': Women in Syria's Roj camp describe night of gunfire and fear (middleeasteye.net) Reem Aouir (middleeasteye.net › reem aouir) Women detained in northeast Syria's Roj camp say bullets tore through tents housing children during a confrontation with Kurdish-led security forces A boy shelters from the rain with a plastic bag during a military operation at Camp Roj in Syria's Hasakah province, on 5 April 2025 (Delil Souleiman/AFP) Kurdish-led armed forces opened fire inside Syria's (middleeasteye.net › syria) Roj camp on Friday evening, with bullets tearing through tents housing children, after several days of protests by women demanding better treatment inside the facility, according to multiple accounts shared with Middle East Eye. No one was reported killed or wounded. But women inside the camp, which holds thousands of foreign women and children, relatives of suspected Islamic State (IS) group fighters, described a night of chaos and terror that has left them and their children severely traumatised. MEE reviewed videos, images and voice recordings obtained from sources inside Roj camp, which appear to show the aftermath of the confrontation, including the sound of gunfire and scenes of panic among women and children. Friday's violence followed several days of what women in the camp described as peaceful protests demanding an end to alleged abuses and the repatriation to their home countries. The incident comes amid growing concern from rights groups over conditions inside Roj and renewed calls for international intervention. MEE reported in June (middleeasteye.net) that violations inside Roj had increased "significantly in both frequency and severity" since January, according to a report by the Swedish-based organisation Repatriate the Children (RTC), which drew on testimony from more than 40 women held in the camp between January and May. According to several women who spoke to MEE, the confrontation began around 6pm when Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) personnel entered the camp in armoured vehicles and established a “human shield” on the main road. Detainees said women began gathering to understand why the forces had entered, before being ordered back to their tents. Hoda Muthana, a woman detained in the camp, said the situation escalated after women challenged the soldiers' presence. "The Kurds provoked the women for their own propaganda. The women then reacted, and the Kurds began to shoot in the air, but one soldier shot through the tent," she told MEE. (middleeasteye.net › war iran kurds krg) War on Iran: Who are the Kurds and what does Trump want from them? Muthana said bullets tore through a neighbouring tent belonging to an Indonesian family before passing dangerously close to where her son was sheltering. "My child had been lying there for about half an hour already before the shots went through," she said. "The tent is all material. We don't know where to hide. Our nightmare came true. We are always in a routine of shielding ourselves inside the tent." "If the shot had been one or two feet lower, it would have hit my child," she added. "I couldn't move from fear. We were only a few feet apart. They almost killed my child." Muthana’s test