Syrian boy disabled by airstrike transferred to hospital in Istanbul for surgery

A 15-year-old Syrian boy who was disabled by a regime airstrike five years ago has been transferred to a private hospital in Istanbul, Turkey for necessary surgeries.

After Anadolu Agency published an exclusive report on Mohammed Jamil Shahabi on June 10, he began receiving treatment at the Romatem Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Hospital in the Black Sea province of Samsun.

He received more than four and a half months of treatment and doctors at the hospital decided to perform spinal and hip surgery on him.

The Turkish Health Ministry sent Mohammed and his mother to a private hospital in Istanbul with an emergency service ambulance.

Expressing his happiness to Anadolu Agency, he said he believed that his pain attacks would pass and he would regain his health.

"I got better after physical therapy. I believe I will be better after surgeries…If I am well after the surgery, I want to go to school," he said.

Shahabi, who lives with his mother and three siblings in al-Bab district in northern Syria, was wounded by flying shrapnel from the airstrike five years ago.

Syria has been mired in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the Bashar al-Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity.

Over the past decade, around half a million people have been killed and more than 12 million had to flee their homes.