A nine year old boy was killed in the southeastern border province of Şanlıurfa (Riha) by a bullet coming from Syrian territory controlled by Turkish-backed militias.

Yusuf Yücel was hit by a bullet from Sere Kaniye on 7th May as he visited his grandfather in the Ceylanpınar district on the Turkish side of the border. The boy died four days later in the hospital, Mezopotamya Agency reported.

Sere Kaniye and Gire Spi are controlled by the Syrian National Army (SMO) and other Turkey-backed paramilitary groups.

The nine year old was the 66th child to lose his life to Turkey’s security policies in the last decade, the agency said citing a report by the Diyarbakır (Amed) Bar Association.

Şanlıurfa alone saw 17 children die between 2013 and 2022, Mezopotamya said.

Kurdish cities Şırnak (Şirnex), Hakkari (Colemêrg), Mardin (Mêrdin), Gaziantep (Dîlok) and Şanlıurfa (Riha) were first among Turkey’s 81 provinces with the highest number of child deaths, according to the bar association’s report entitled Violations of Child Rights by Armoured Vehicles, Mines and Remnants of Conflict-War.

Since 2011, 22 children have died and 27 others injured due to an armoured vehicle hit, the bar association found. All but one of the 22 children lost their lives in Kurdish-majority provinces, whereas one child lost his life in the western Marmara region.

The study also found that remnants of war resulted in the death of 45 children and the injury of another 135 since 2011.

Turkey’s security policies, including the use of minefields and armoured vehicles in urban areas, caused the most deaths, Diyarbakır Bar Association President Nahit Eren told news website Bianet. Impunity compounded the matter, according to the lawyer.