‘Abhorrent’: Kebab shop worker latest innocent victim caught in gangland crossfire
A woman hit with bullets while working in a kebab shop kitchen is the latest in a terrifying list of innocent victims caught in a worsening crisis.
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A kebab shop employee fighting for her life in hospital after being hit twice in the stomach in Sydney’s latest brazen gangland shooting has been identified as Yurdagul Aydogu.
The 50-year-old employee at M Brothers Takeaway, known as Gul, was caught in the crossfire with police describing her as an innocent victim simply doing her job.
Ms Aydogu is in a critical condition, in an induced coma at Westmead Hospital.
Police say the shooting, in front of a busy lunchtime crowd in Auburn, was a targeted underworld hit.
Alleged gangland figure Samimjan Azari, 26, was the intended target, with detectives revealing it was the fourth time an attempt had been made on his life.
Video footage shows Azari grabbing a chair to shield himself as two masked men run at him, while firing bullets at him and a man said to be his bodyguard.
Ms Aydogu was hit in the midsection by two stray bullets.
‘Abhorrent’: Sad truth about shooting
While the incident in western Sydney is shocking, the attack that injured Ms Aydogu’s is sadly not uncommon in Australia.
She is the 14th innocent person caught in the crossfire of the escalating gang wars said to have been sparked by a feud between the Alameddine crime clan and their former enforcers, the KVT.
State Police Minister Yasmin Catley said this week it was “abhorrent” that civilians were being caught in the crossfire of apparent underworld violence.
“A woman has been caught up in this event, an innocent victim doing her job, all she did is go to work and she has been caught up in this shocking event,” she said.
“It’s one thing for criminals to be shooting each other, but when innocent people get caught up in this, it is absolutely abhorrent and we will not tolerate it.”
Since the gang war began in October 2020, seven innocent people have been shot dead and at least another seven have been injured.
Plumber John Versace was killed in a case of mistaken identity in May this year.
A masked gunman dived from a Corolla and fired 10 shots at the young plumber in Condell Park as he screamed at him to stop.
Described by relatives as “a beautiful boy, an innocent boy,” Mr Versace had no known criminal associations.
Thi Kim Tran, a 45-year-old mother originally from Vietnam, was tragically killed in Sydney on April 17 in what authorities described as a targeted act of gang-related violence.
She was abducted from her home in Bankstown by five masked men and later found dead in a burnt-out SUV in Beverly Hills.
Police believe the attack was linked to her partner’s alleged involvement with an organised crime syndicate.
During the home invasion, Ms Tran’s eight-year-old son was severely beaten with a baseball bat and placed in an induced coma, while her 15-year-old son witnessed the traumatic event. Authorities have emphasised that Ms Tran and her children had no involvement in criminal activities.
A month earlier, grandmother Kim Duncan was killed when she was hit by a slew of bullets which were fired into her Ambarvale home. Ms Duncan was not the intended target, but tragically died when she was struck by a piece of shrapnel.
In 2023, Ahmad Al Azzam, 25, was killed and a young couple seriously injured in a bungled gangland shooting at an industrial estate in Greenacre.
An innocent couple were also caught up in the shooting after the gunman’s shots pierced their car parked 50 metres down the street.
Kaashif Richards, 22, was shot in the neck and Achiraya Jantharat, 19, was shot in the back.
Police sources said while Richards and Jantharat were together, they did not know Al-Azzam – who also did not have gang links.
In the same year Taha Sabbagh, a 40-year-old father and well-known chauffeur in Sydney’s Middle Eastern community, was killed in a targeted shooting outside the Elite Fight Force gym in Sefton. A getaway driver has been jailed, with the case playing out in court as one of mistaken identity.
An innocent Sydney hairdresser was shot dead in 2022.
Amy Al-Hazouri, 39, was shot dead alongside 48-year-old Lametta Fadlallah when their car was sprayed with bullets in Panania in what police labelled a targeted “assassination”.
Also in 2022, Toufik Hamze, 64, was executed alongside his son Salim, 18, as they cleaned a car outside their Guildford home.
While Salim was believed to have been caught up in the underworld, Mr Toufik was just collateral, executed at close range.
Also in 2022, a nine-year-old girl was shot in Connells Point as she walked from the car to the front of her home. It was an attack that sickened police, and left her with life long injuries.
In 2021, Mustapha Naaman, 29, was killed in a volley of gunfire as he left a boxing fight night. Police again believe it was a case of mistaken identity.
In the same year Rama Osman was shot in the head with a stray bullet while he was sitting in his car a few hundred metres up the road when low-level Alameddine crime clan member Shady Kanj was assassinated. Mr Osman had no links to any gang – and police said he was an innocent bystander.
NSW Police Acting Commissioner Peter Thurtell described the latest shooting as “beyond comprehension” and promised every available resource would be thrown at catching those responsible.
Originally published as ‘Abhorrent’: Kebab shop worker latest innocent victim caught in gangland crossfire
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