Turkey again carries out air strikes in northern Syria AfD leader Weidel: “We are no longer an Eastern phenomenon”

A week after an attack in Ankara, Turkey carried out further airstrikes against Kurdish militias in Syria. The Defense Ministry in Ankara said the air force bombed oil facilities and hideouts of the Kurdish militia YPG late on Sunday evening. It was also said that numerous fighters were put out of action – a phrase that usually means that the fighters were killed. Turkey has not said exactly in which regions the airstrikes took place.

The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported “intense” shelling in northeastern Syria on Monday. The organization bases its information on information from local activists. At least twenty members of Kurdish police units close to the YPG were killed in the attacks. At least fifty others are said to have been injured, some seriously. Observers expect the death toll to continue to rise.

Ankara justifies the attacks in Syria that started on Thursday after the suicide bombing in Ankara with the right to self-defense. On October 1, two police officers were injured and both attackers were killed. The banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party PKK claimed responsibility for the attack. Turkey considers the YPG an offshoot of the PKK and classifies both as terrorist organizations. The Turkish Air Force also carries out repeated airstrikes against the PKK in northern Iraq, where it is headquartered.

The Turkish military has carried out several military offensives in northern Syria since 2016, mainly targeting the YPG, and has occupied border areas in the neighboring country. In Europe and the US, only the PKK is listed as a terrorist organization. The SDF, led by Kurdish militias, is a close ally of the US in the fight against Islamist terrorists in Syria. (saw/sda/dpa)