Syrian boy recounts losing leg in shelling

Ahmed Sadek was one of many who traveled to a hospital in Tripoli on Monday, reportedly after Syrian army forces shelled his hometown of al-Qusair which borders with Lebanon.

The 13-year-old, along with four other wounded Syrians, arrived in Lebanon to seek treatment said the medical staff at Tripoli’s main hospital.

Activists say the shelling happened on Friday a day after 12 workers were killed near al-Qusair by gunmen loyal to President Bashar al-Assad who are to believed to have ordered them off a bus and shot them.

Ahmed said he can’t remember how he got to the hospital in Tripoli.

“There was a helicopter flying over us and then the shelling began. A mortar shell hit our house and I fell to the floor. I lost a part of my leg,” said Sadek from his hospital bed.

“I don’t know what hit my leg, the shrapnel or the shell itself. My father took me to the hospital in al-Qusair and then I woke up in this hospital. I don’t know how I got here.”

The northern city of Tripoli has witnessed a rise in the number of wounded Syrians seeking treatment at hospitals after being smuggled through the border areas.

What started as peaceful protests against Assad’s 11-year rule has spiraled into a civil war like scenario in Syria.

The United Nations says Assad’s forces have killed more than 10,000 people since March, 2011. However, his government continues to blame the violence on armed “terrorists” who, it claims, have killed more than 2,600 soldiers and other members of the security forces.

Over 20,000 Syrians have sought refuge in Lebanon. The U.N. has registered 10,112 and estimates there are a further 7,500 in the Bekaa Valley and between 2,000 to 3,000 in the Tripoli area. There are also 704 Syrian refugees in south Beirut.