Beirut, Jun. 15, (dpa/GNA) – Turkish forces on Wednesday intensified their attacks on Kurd-controlled areas in northern Syria, killing at least four fighters and injuring two others, Syrian Kurds and a monitor reported.
The Kurdish-backed Manbij Military Council said the fighters were killed while trying to rescue two injured children in the al-Dandania village north west of Manbij, which came under heavy artillery shelling by the Turkish forces and their allied militias earlier Wednesday.
It added that one civilian was also killed Wednesday after a Turkish drone had hit his home in the village of Arab Hassan, north west of Manbij.
Turkey’s Defence Ministry tweeted on Wednesday that it had “neutralized 41 terrorists” in the Manbij and Tel Rifat regions. It was not clear to what period of time the statement referred.
Turkey has always regarded the Syrian Kurdish militia YPG as part of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, confirmed the attack on Manbij and said further shelling on areas manned by Syrian government troops in Tel Rifat, a Kurdish-held area in rural Aleppo in northern Syria, had also killed five government troops and injured six others.
The Britain-based watchdog added that Turkey has carried out 23 airstrikes and drone attacks in northern and north-eastern Syria since the beginning of 2023, killing at least 32 people and injuring 26 others.
The Kurds control a large area in the north and east of war-torn Syria where the US and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) militia have been fighting Islamic State militants.
GNA