Turkish Airstrikes Kill 35 Civilians in Kurdish-Held Areas in Syria
Turkish airstrikes on Kurdish-held areas of Syria killed 35 civilians on Sunday in villages near Turkey’s border, the Telegraph reported.
Kurdish fighters killed one Turkish soldier, and injured three others.
Last week Turkey sent tanks and troops over the border to target both so-called Islamic State (ISIS) militants and the People’s Protection Units (YPG), the main Syrian Kurdish militia and a key U.S. ally in the fight against ISIS.
The Turkish military operation, “Operation Euphrates Shield,” pushed ISIS militants out of their last strategic border town, Jarablus, with Turkish tanks and warplanes fighting alongside Syrian rebels.
Turkey’s intervention in Syria largely aims to quell Kurdish ambitions of consolidating their territory in northern Syria, seeing the YPG as an extension of its own Kurdish insurgency, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been fighting for autonomy since the 1980s.
Turkey demanded that the Kurds retreat to east of the Euphrates river. Syrian rebels told the Telegraph that with the help of Turkey, they plan to expand their operation to the town of Manbij. The U.S.-backed predominantly Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) liberated the town of Manbij from ISIS militants earlier this month after more than two months of battle.
Severe Burn Victims in Besieged Areas Treated With Mud
Footage from a besieged rebel-held area in Syria shows victims with burns from alleged incendiary weapons being treated with mud, Al Jazeera reported.
Al-Waer, a besieged area in the city of Homs, was targeted by Syrian government airstrikes Saturday night. Doctors in the besieged neighborhood accused the government of using napalm. Without access to medical supplies, first responders were using mud to cool burns.
Two children were killed and five more injured, according to a member of the Syrian Civil Defense, a group of volunteer first responders. At least 20 adults were also injured by the reported incendiary weapon attack.
Incendiary weapons like napalm can cause extreme burns, and are prohibited from use in areas with civilian presence, according to Protocol III to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, signed by 113 countries. Syria is not a signatory.
Syrian Army Says It Has Complete Control of Daraya
Rebels and civilians were evacuated from Daraya after four years of government-imposed siege, and Syrian government forces entered the town, located just a few miles outside of the capital Damascus, on Saturday, Agence France-Presse reported.
Hundreds of fighters and their families were taken by escorted buses to the rebel-held province of Idlib in northern Syria, according to Syria’s state-run media outlet SANA. Some 4,000 civilians were reportedly taken to government-controlled reception centers outside of Damascus.
“The Daraya file is now closed after the evacuation of all the civilians, armed men and their families under the agreement,” Syrian state television said, referring to the deal made last week between rebels and government forces
A military source told AFP that the Syrian army was in complete control of the town.
Daraya was one of the first towns to peacefully protest against the government of President Bashar al-Assad, and has been under a government-imposed siege since 2012. Over the last four years, only one aid convoy was allowed in the town, where civilians were trapped in dire living conditions with no access to humanitarian supplies and subjected to constant aerial bombardments.
Activists accused the government of using “starve or surrender” strategies, calling the evacuation deal a forced displacement of Daraya’s residents.
Recommended Reads:
- The Daily Beast: Syria’s Srebrenica?
- The New York Times: Why I Go to Aleppo
- The Washington Post: How Turkey’s Offensive Into Syria Is Opening Up a Hornet’s Nest
- Reuters: U.S. and Russia Fail to Close Deal on Ending Violence in Syria
- The New Yorker: Assad’s War on Aleppo