A woman in Afghanistan has volunteered to breastfeed as many as 20 newborn babies after a vicious attack on a Kabul hospital, according to a report.
Feroza Younis Omar, who works for the country’s economic ministry, said she felt compelled to step in the wake of the tragic attack on the Doctors Without Borders ward on Tuesday that killed 24 — including infants, mothers, and nurses.
“All of us have been damaged by criminals who are destroying humanity in Afghanistan. I am one of those,” she told local television station Tolo News.
Some 20 newborns who survived the attack earlier this week were transferred to Ataturk Hospital. Omar rushed to the hospital just hours after the newborns were brought there, and has since inspired other women to join her in helping nurse them.
Kabul resident Aziza Kermani is one of the women who joined the effort to care for the babies.
“I am ready to adopt one of the babies who have lost their mother or whose families do not have the financial ability to raise them,” Kermani told the news station.
Karim Sadjadpour, senior fellow at the Carnagie Endowment, called Omar a “true hero” for stepping in.
“Feroza Omar is a true hero,” Sadjadpour told alarabiya. “Twenty newborn babies lost their caretakers after the barbaric attack on a maternity hospital in Kabul. Feroza, the mother of a 14-month-old child, rushed to the hospital to feed them, and inspired women to do the same.”
At least three gunmen wearing police uniforms stormed the government-run, 100-bed Dasht-e-Barchi hospital Tuesday and opened fire — gunning down two dozen people, including children. Soldiers were seen carrying out infants after the attack, some of them wrapped in bloody blankets.
Police forces then engaged in an hours-long standoff with the attackers, who were eventually killed in the shootout.
In a separate attack on Tuesday, a suicide bomber in Nangarhar province — an ISIS hotbed — targeted the funeral of a militia commander, killing 24 people and wounding 68.
