Turkey steps up attacks on Syria’s Kurds amid Iraq operation
Ankara is using the cover of Ukraine’s war to weaken the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and associated groups in the region.
Turkey’s military has launched a spate of strikes on Kurdish-run parts of northeast Syria over the past week as world attention is focused on Ukraine.
At least four artillery shells from the Turkish side of the border bombarded the symbolic Kurdish-majority Syrian city of Kobani on Friday. Two civilians were wounded, according to local reports.
On Wednesday, a Turkish drone strike killed the co-commander of the US-backed militia forces in Kobani and two other female fighters from the Kurdish-led Women’s Protection Units (YPJ). The group is one of the core Kurdish-led units in Syria that receives support from a US-led international military coalition in the fight against the Islamic State.
Turkey has launched four other drone strikes on the Syrian side of the border within the past ten days, two of which targeted facilities used by local security forces, spokesman for the Kurdish-led forces Farhad Shami told Al-Monitor.
