Turkey has carried out deadly airstrikes against Turkish Kurdish rebel positions in Iraq and Syrian Kurdish forces in Syria, targeted by a bloody jihadist assault in late January.
A country bordering Syria and Iraq, Turkey has been deploying troops in northern Syria, at war, since 2020, and controls areas with its Syrian auxiliaries.
According to the Turkish Ministry of Defense, the raids on Tuesday evening targeted “shelters, bunkers, caves, tunnels, ammunition depots and alleged headquarters and training camps”, used by the Workers’ Party of the Kurdistan (PKK) in Iraq and by the People’s Protection Units (YPG, Syrian Kurdish Forces) in Syria.
The PKK, a Turkish Kurdish rebel group, described as “terrorist” by Turkey and its Western allies, has been leading an insurrection in this country since 1984. Ankara considers the YPG to be a “terrorist” offshoot of the PKK in Syria.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH), Turkish raids hit a power plant in Syria near the town of Al-Malikiya, in the province of Hassaké, under the control of the local administration. Kurdish. “At least four people have been killed,” the NGO said.
The strikes came hours after a funeral gathering hundreds of people in the same city, organized for the Kurdish fighters killed in a recent attack by the jihadist group Islamic State (IS) against a prison in Hassakeh run by the Syrian Democratic Forces. (FDS), whose mainstay is the YPG.
“Displaced wounded”
On Wednesday evening, the Turkish forces intensified their bombardments in northeastern Syria, targeting in particular “about twenty villages and sites […] in the region of Hassaké and the north of the province of Raqa”, according to the Observatory. The shootings targeted residential areas, causing the displacement of a large number of inhabitants, added the same source.
The OSDH had previously also reported more than 40 rockets and shells fired since Tuesday evening by Turkish forces on areas in the north of the province of Aleppo under Kurdish control.
On Wednesday, at least 8 people, including 5 civilians, were killed and 29 injured, some seriously, in a bombardment in the city of al-Bab in the province of Aleppo, under the control of Turkish forces and its Syrian auxiliaries. , had also indicated the OSDH without specifying where the shots came from.
In Iraq, in the Kurdish autonomous region of Kurdistan (north), “Turkish fighter planes targeted several PKK positions”, in particular in the regions of Makhmour and Sinjar, according to a press release from the anti-terrorist services of Kurdistan, evoking ” casualties “. “Turkish military aircraft bombed six PKK positions in the Karjokh mountains”, overlooking a camp for displaced Kurds in Makhmour, they said.
An armed group linked to the PKK which manages the camp reported “two fighters killed and dozens injured among the residents of the camp”.
“Airspace Violation”
In a statement, the Iraqi security forces denounced a “violation of Iraqi airspace”, saying they were ready “to cooperate to stabilize the situation at the border”.
Turkey has de facto installed dozens of military bases for 25 years in Iraqi Kurdistan. In 2021, it launched a new military campaign against the PKK in northern Iraq, with recurring aerial bombardments.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accuses the PKK of using the mountainous border area as a springboard for its insurgency. In recent months, several Turkish soldiers have notably been killed in attacks in northern Iraq attributed to the PKK.
Turkey is trying to continue what IS started.
In Syria, a country fragmented by a devastating war, Turkish forces have repeatedly targeted the YPG.
“Turkey is trying to continue what ISIS started,” the YPG charged on Twitter, referring to the ISIS assault that sought to free jihadists from the prison under attack. “Everyone must act against this attack now. »
The FDS announced on Sunday the end of search operations in the prison after several days of fighting, which left 373 dead, including 268 jihadists according to the OSDH.
Backed by the United States, the SDF are spearheading the fight against IS, driven out of its strongholds in Syria and Iraq, but which continues to carry out attacks with sleeper cells.