Two female fighters of a military council linked to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF, an alliance with Kurdish rulers) were killed yesterday Friday in northern Syria in an airstrike attributed to Turkey, according to local authorities.

Turkey, which frequently launches drone strikes on the autonomous Kurdish-controlled areas of Syrian territory, has stepped up its strikes in recent weeks.

“Two of our female fighters were martyred,” the general command of the Manbij military council said in a statement, “when their vehicle was targeted by a drone of the Turkish occupation forces on a road leading to al-Khattab village, south of Manbij.” A third female fighter and a fighter were injured and taken to a hospital, according to the same source.

The Manbij Military Council, which is close to the SDF, controls the eponymous city and its surroundings. The area is sometimes targeted by shelling from positions of pro-Turkish Syrian organizations, which control areas west of the city.

At the beginning of the month, deadly clashes broke out between the SDF and pro-Turkish organizations there.

The fighting followed the SDF’s announcement that it had recaptured a village in Deir Ezzor province, in the eastern part of the war-torn country, after fierce clashes with Arab tribal fighters that left at least 90 dead.

“After the recent attacks (…) by mercenaries of the Turkish occupation forces, their failure to advance on all fronts and their heavy losses, the Turkish occupation forces (…) resorted to cowardly and treacherous methods”, according to the announcement.

Since the beginning of the year, 58 people have been killed in Turkish UAV strikes – 13 civilians and 42 members of Kurdish organizations or their allies – according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based non-governmental organization with a wide network. sources in the warring country.

The SDF, which is backed by Washington, has been at the forefront of the fight against the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group, which was driven from its strongholds in Syria in 2019.

Ankara describes the main component of the YPG, the YPG (People’s Protection Units), which it says is the Syrian arm of the Turkish Kurdish rebels of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), as a “terrorist” organization.