Turkey says it’s self-defense. The airstrikes are revenge for the bombing in Istanbul a week ago.
According to initial reports, at least 12 people have died in Turkish airstrikes in northern Syria and the Kurdish region of Iraq. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the situation in Syria, at least six Kurdish fighters and six soldiers of the Syrian Armed Forces have been killed in the attacks.
The Kurdish-led administration in northern Syria has so far not provided more detailed information about the dead and wounded. According to a representative of the Kurdish-led forces in northern Syria, Turkish strikes have hit at least two villages where internal refugees lived.
According to the Turkish Ministry of Defense, the attacks are about Turkey’s self-defense with the right granted by the UN Charter. On its Twitter account, the ministry says that “the crooks will be held accountable for their fraudulent actions.” Turkey says it has struck “terrorist” positions, including bunkers and warehouses.
The attacks have been characterized as revenge for the terrorist attack in Istanbul a week ago, in which six people died and more than 80 were injured. Turkey has blamed the Kurdistan Workers’ Party PKK and the armed Syrian Kurdish YPG movement operating in Syria for the attacks. Turkey considers the YPG to be part of the PKK.
YPG and PKK have denied carrying out the Istanbul attack.
Strikes in a wide area
Turkey has been constantly bombing northern Syria and also has troops in Iraq, where there are PKK camps. Turkey also occupies some areas in northern Syria together with its local allies. This time the air attack is exceptionally extensive and airstrikes have been reported from both northern Iraq and northern Syria from more than twenty locations.
Among the targets is the city of Kobani, which is remembered for the resistance of the Syrian Kurds against the extremist group ISIS in 2014. Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said immediately after the Istanbul attack that the order had come from the YPG and specifically from Koban. It is unclear what Soylu’s claims are based on.
In October 2019, Turkey carried out a large-scale ground attack in northern Syria, but so far there are no indications of the movement of ground forces across the border. President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan however, since May has threatened a new large-scale attack on northern Syria.
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