Turkish airstrikes in Syria’s Kurdish-held northeast resulted in the deaths of eight civilians, according to reports from a war monitor and local media. The strikes, part of Turkey’s operations in Iraq and Syria, were launched in response to attacks on Turkish soldiers in northern Iraq that claimed 12 lives. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights initially reported six civilian deaths, but later revised the toll to eight. Among the victims were five employees of a printing works in the city of Qamishli, near the Turkish border. The strikes targeted more than 20 locations, primarily in the Qamishli area of the semi-autonomous Kurdish administration.
The spokesperson for the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), Farhad Shani, confirmed on social media that the strikes had destroyed “more than 25” civilian facilities. The SDF, dominated by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), played a key role in driving Islamic State group fighters from their last strongholds in Syria in 2019. Turkey considers the YPG an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), designated as a terrorist group.
In October, Turkey escalated airstrikes in Syria’s northeast following an attack in Ankara that wounded two security personnel. A branch of the PKK claimed responsibility for the attack, leading to increased hostilities between Turkey and Kurdish forces in northern Syria. Since 2016, Turkey has conducted multiple ground operations to expel Kurdish forces from border areas in northern Syria. The broader conflict in Syria, which began in 2011, has claimed over half a million lives and involved various foreign armies, jihadists, and brutal crackdowns on anti-government protests.
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