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Mystery epidemic taking toll on Syrian
military
14.7.2010 |
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July
14, 2010
LONDON, — Syria's military was said be
fighting a mysterious epidemic that has killed
several soldiers and delayed programs.
The Syrian opposition asserted that an unknown
disease has been raging through Syrian Army
barracks, particularly in the north. The opposition
said the suspected epidemic has killed several
people and delayed a recruitment program.
"The enrollment of new conscripts has been postponed
to the beginning of next month rather than this
month," the opposition West Kurdistan Society said.
In a statement on July 12, the society, which
reports on the Kurdish minority in Syria, said an
undetermined number of soldiers have died of the
"unknown disease."
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File photo. Syrian soldier |
On July 10, the
statement said, 10 Army recruits were rushed to a
hospital in the northeastern Kurdish city of
Qamishli in Syrian Kurdistan [Western Kurdistan] and
were reported in critical condition.
The Syrian military has not acknowledged the
epidemic. But officials have confirmed that Syrian
hospitals were treating many people for exhaustion
and other illnesses related to the current heat wave
in the Levant.
This marked the second report by the Syrian
opposition of an epidemic that has struck the Army.
The first report said many Syrian soldiers were
hospitalized by what appeared to be dysentery. The
disease was attributed to a lack of water,www.ekurd.netfood
and poor sanitary conditions in Syrian military
training camps.
"There has been a lot of speculation about the
reasons for this disease, some blaming the vaccines
given to new soldiers, which may have been
corrupted," the West Kurdistan Society said. "Others
attributed the cause to the state of the weather as
there is a wave of intense heat and high
temperatures. Some attribute it to a bacterial
contamination in water and food in the barracks, and
so far this is limited to members of the military,
not Syrian civilians."
The Kurdish group said Syrian hospitals were
overflowing with soldiers and civil servants
believed infected by the epidemic. The report said
Syrian physicians have failed to reach a diagnosis
and were hampered by poor equipment and training.
So far, at least 14 soldiers, all of them new
recruits, were said to have died in the epidemic.
The Kurdish group cited deaths in military hospitals
in Harasta and Teshrin.
"The Syrian government is unable to provide quick
solutions to reduce the spread of the disease, which
has turned into a nightmare that haunts members of
the Army and the Syrian community in general," the
statement said.
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