Syrian mother rushed to hospital by Turkish soldiers names baby 'Spring'
| AA Photo


A pregnant Syrian woman who was rushed to the hospital by Turkish soldiers after going into labor named her newborn baby girl "Pınar," meaning spring, in honor of Turkey's Operation Peace Spring in northern Syria.

According to Turkey's Ministry of National Defense, Turkish soldiers who were clearing landmines and improvised explosive devices in the newly liberated Tal Abyad and Ras al-Ayn took quick action after hearing that the expectant mother had gone into labor.

The soldiers transported Ziheyye al-Halil in an armored personnel carrier across the border to Akçakale State Hospital in Turkey's Şanlıurfa province.

Al-Halil gave birth to a healthy baby girl, naming her in honor of Turkey's counterterrorism operation.

The soldiers wished baby Pınar and her mother "a life full of health and happiness."

Turkey launched Operation Peace Spring, the third in a series of cross-border anti-terror operations in northern Syria targeting terrorists affiliated with Daesh and the PKK's Syrian offshoot the YPG, on Oct. 9 at 4 p.m.

The operation, conducted in line with the country's right to self-defense borne out of international law and U.N. Security Council resolutions, aims to establish a terror-free safe zone for Syrians return in the area east of the Euphrates River controlled by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which is dominated by YPG terrorists.

In its more than 30-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK — listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the European Union — has been responsible for deaths of 40,000 people, including women, children and infants.