Syria war: Turkey kills 25 people in latest air strikes

Turkey has massed tanks along its border with Syria.
Source: AP

At least 25 people have been killed in the latest round of Turkish air strikes in Syria, near the city of Jarablus.

Turkish authorities said the dead, killed in shelling and air strikes on Sunday, were all Kurdish militants.

Separately, a monitoring group said at least 35 civilians and four militants were killed by Turkish strikes in villages near Jarablus on Sunday.

It is not yet clear whether the two reports were referring to the same incident.

The strikes came on the fifth day of a Turkish military operation to target so-called Islamic State (IS) militants and Kurdish militia inside Syria, dubbed Operation Euphrates Sword.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 20 people died in strikes on Jeb el-Kussa and another 15 were killed in a separate bombardment near al-Amarneh.

Four local fighters were also killed, the Observatory reported.

Turkey’s military said in a statement that it had killed 25 members of the PYD, an offshoot of the PKK.

Jeb el-Kussa is located 14km (9 miles) south of Jarabulus and is controlled by local fighters with support from Kurdish forces.

On Saturday Turkey’s military suffered its first fatality of the offensive, when a soldier died in a tank hit by a rocket. Turkish authorities blamed Kurdish militia for the death.
Complicated alliances

Turkey has been targeting Kurdish-controlled villages around Jarablus, which Turkish-led forces captured from IS on the first day of the offensive.

It fears Kurdish fighters gaining an unbroken strip of territory along its border, which would be a huge boost to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a banned Kurdish rebel group fighting for autonomy in Turkey.

Turkey’s operations further complicate the already protracted Syrian civil war. Both Turkey and Kurdish rebels are US allies.

The US has backed Turkey’s anti-IS operations in Syria, and both countries have demanded that Kurdish forces withdraw to the east bank of the Euphrates river.
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Source:BBC

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