“Seventeen fighters were killed in a Turkish airstrike targeting a Syrian regime position (…) near the Turkish border,” in the village of Jarkali, west of the city of Kobani, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.
Turkish airstrikes in northern Syria against a regime position have killed 17 people, following overnight hostilities between Ankara’s troops and Kurdish fighters, a non-governmental organization said on Tuesday.
“Seventeen fighters were killed in a Turkish airstrike targeting a Syrian regime position (…) near the Turkish border,” in the village of Jarkali, west of the city of Kobani, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.
“We don’t know if they belonged to the regime forces or if they were Kurdish fighters who control the zone,” said the NGO’s director, Rami Abdel Rahman.
The official Syrian news agency SANA reported, citing a source close to the army, that the deaths of three Syrian soldiers and the injuries of six others have been confirmed.
“Any attack against a position controlled by our armed forces will be met directly and immediately on all fronts,” the SANA source added.
Fierce fighting broke out overnight Monday into Tuesday between the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance led by Kurdish factions, and the Turkish army, which stepped up its shelling after one of its border posts was attacked, according to the Syrian Human Rights Watch.
Business in progress
Ankara said the Kurdish attack on Turkish territory claimed the life of one soldier.
In retaliation, “13 terrorists were neutralized”, announced the Turkish Ministry of Defense, which explained that the operation in the area will continue.
The SDF said in a statement released that “Turkish military aircraft” carried out “12 strikes against positions of the Syrian army deployed in the border zone west of Kobani”. The strikes had “casualties,” spokesman Farhad Sami said, without elaborating.
According to the SDF, at least 13 of its fighters have been killed in Turkish raids since July.
Kurdish factions control most of northeastern Syria, a country torn apart by war that broke out in 2011 and has become extremely complicated over the years with the involvement of a myriad of organizations and foreign powers, including Turkey.
The conflict in Syria has claimed the lives of at least half a million people and turned millions more into refugees and internally displaced persons.
Syrian regime forces have been deployed in recent years in areas controlled by Kurdish forces near the border with Turkey, as part of agreements aimed at preventing Turkish cross-border attacks against Kurdish groups that Ankara describes as “terrorist”.
Turkey, which has launched a series of operations in Syria targeting Kurdish paramilitary groups and the Islamic State jihadist group, has threatened since May to launch a large-scale offensive against Kurds in northeastern Syria.
Since the outbreak of the war, Turkey, a patron of rebel groups, has come out strongly against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. But since last week, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has been calling for an understanding between the Syrian government and the opposition, which has angered the rebels and their supporters and sparked anti-Turkish protests.
Yesterday Tuesday, Mr. Cavusoglu stated again that the Syrian rebels and the Damascus regime must “reconcile”.
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