Turkey carried out an air operation this weekend “against terrorist targets in northern Syria and Iraq” in retaliation for the death of twelve of its soldiers in two days in northern Iraq where it has military bases.
In northeast Syria, at least eight civilians were killed in Turkish airstrikes on Monday, including two women, Farhad Shami, a spokesman for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitoring body, said another 12 people were injured.
Turkey carried out 128 strikes in northeast Syria in 2023, killing 94 people, according to the Observatory.
Turkish officials said on Friday that militants affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a Kurdish separatist group that has waged an insurgency against Turkey since the 1980s, attempted to infiltrate a Turkish base in the semi-Kurdish region. -autonomous northern Iraq. According to them, six Turkish soldiers were killed in the exchanges of fire that followed. The next day, six more Turkish soldiers were killed in clashes with Kurdish militants.
In response, Ankara launched strikes on dozens of sites it said were associated with the PKK in Iraq and Syria.
Some of the strikes hit oil industry sites, health facilities and vital infrastructure in northeastern Syria, reducing electricity production by 50% on Saturday, according to the Autonomous Administration of the North and Eastern Syria, a Kurdish-led authority in northeastern Syria that Turkey says is affiliated with the PKK but is a key U.S. ally.
Turkey and Washington both consider the PKK a terrorist group, but disagree on the status of Syrian Kurdish groups, which have been allied with the United States in the fight against the Islamic State group in Syria.
Kurds urge United Nations to act
In its statement, the Kurdish administration urged the United Nations to intervene, warning that Turkish attacks could threaten the region’s security.
It said one of the strikes hit a site near Alaya prison in Qamishli, which houses IS members.
The Syrian Kurds, after the war in Syria started in 2011, established an autonomous administration in the areas they control in the north and east of the country, which are regularly targeted by the army of Turkey, country neighbor of Syria and Iraq.
Allies of the United States, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a coalition dominated by the Kurds, hold these areas.
Ankara considers the main component of the SDF, the YPG (People’s Protection Units), as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK, Turkish), described as a “terrorist organization” by Turkey and its Western allies.
On Monday, Turkish bombings targeted installations managed by the autonomous Kurdish administration, killing eight civilians, according to a new report from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH), an NGO based in London but with extensive coverage. network of sources in Syria.
Among the dead, five died in a strike against a printing press in the town of Qamichli, in the province of Hassaké, near the Turkish border, the NGO said.
The Turkish air force carried out more than 20 airstrikes in the region, mainly on Qamichli and its surroundings, according to the OSDH and AFP correspondents on site.
“More than 25 civilian installations” were targeted, said Farhad Shami, spokesperson for the FDS, on X (ex-Twitter), confirming the toll of eight civilians killed.
Saturday evening, the OSDH reported strikes against oil sites near the Turkish border.
The twelve Turkish soldiers died in two separate attacks against Turkish military bases Friday and Saturday in northern Iraq, according to the Turkish Defense Ministry.
ADVERTISEMENTThe Turkish army, which also deploys soldiers in northern Syria, regularly launches military land and air operations against the positions of the PKK which has rear bases in Iraqi Kurdistan (north).
The PKK has been in armed struggle against the Turkish authorities since 1984.
