Thousands of Kurds participated today in the funerals of the four civilians who were killed yesterday in northern Syria by militants close to Turkey while celebrating Nowruz.

Waving Kurdish flags, funeral participants in the town of Indires, near the border with Turkey, denounced the Turkish-aligned organizations that control the area.

Militants close to Turkey opened fire Monday on members of a Kurdish family who had lit a bonfire near a house to celebrate Nowruz, which marks the start of spring, killing four civilians and wounding three others.

“My children (…) were killed for no reason,” sobbed Koli Meho, 70, who lost his three sons and grandson.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the perpetrators of the fire are members of Ahrar al-Sharqiya, an organization that counts jihadists in its ranks and was added in 2021 to the US sanctions list as it is accused of atrocities against the local population.

Residents told Agence France-Presse that the perpetrators of the fire were members of a splinter group from that formation, Jaih al-Sharqiyyah.

“We are protesting against the groups in Turkey that don’t let us move freely and live safely,” said Abu Jan, 42, who attended the funerals.

“We are treated like second, third class citizens, it is our right to celebrate Nowruz,” he added.

In a tweet, Elham Ahmed, an official in the Kurdish administration that controls areas to the east, called on the “UN and human rights organizations to investigate” the incident and “punish those responsible.”

“Turkey and the terrorist groups it supports are responsible for crimes against humanity” in these areas, he added.

About 30 groups close to Turkey share control of a border zone home to about 1.1 million people and are accused of atrocities, including arbitrary arrests and confiscation of land and property.

Many Kurdish residents fled the area after Turkish-aligned groups took control of it in 2018 following an attack by Ankara.