Warplanes Attack Khan Sheikhoun

At least seven people, including a child, were killed when warplanes targeted a marketplace in the town of Khan Sheikhoun in rebel-held Idlib province on Monday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) monitoring group.

Others were injured, and the death toll is expected to rise, SOHR said.

Khan Sheikhoun was the target of a suspected chemical weapons attack earlier this month that killed more than 80 people. The Syrian government has denied the attack, while its ally Russia has claimed Syrian warplanes were targeting chemical munitions in a rebel warehouse.

Located in northwestern Syria, Idlib province is controlled by an array of rebels and jihadists. Hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people from former opposition-controlled territories have moved or been forcibly relocated to Idlib.

U.S. Deeply Concerned Over Ally Bombing

The U.S. is “deeply concerned” that its NATO ally Turkey bombed its coalition ally the Kurdish YPG militia in Syria on Tuesday, CNN reported.

A senior U.S. defense official told CNN that Ankara gave Washington just an hour’s advance notice before its warplanes targeted a YPG headquarters in northeastern Syria, and another in Iraq. According to a statement from the Turkish military, the air raids “neutralized” PKK “terrorist” fighters.

Despite Kurdish YPG forces in Syria being at the forefront in the fight against the so-called Islamic State, Ankara views them as “terrorists” and an extension to its outlawed PKK party, which has been fighting for Kurdish autonomy in Turkey since the 1980s.

“We are very concerned, deeply concerned, that Turkey conducted airstrikes earlier today in northern Syria as well as northern Iraq without proper coordination either with the United States or the broader global coalition to defeat ISIS,” acting State Department spokesman Mark Toner told reporters Tuesday.

Ankara claimed its military operation in Syria, Euphrates Shield, had successfully ended in March. Its intervention had the aim of pushing back both the so-called Islamic State and the Kurdish forces fighting them from its shared border with Syria.

Syrian Government Says It Will No Longer Renew Passports in Jordan or Turkey

The Syrian government will no longer renew passports at its consulates in Jordan and Turkey, according to a statement it released on its consulates’ websites on Sunday, Al Arabiya reported.

Jordan hosts nearly 1.3 million Syrian refugees, and there are more than 2.6 million Syrian refugees living in Turkey.

The consular fee for renewing passports for Syrians also doubled to $800 from a previous $400, according to the Syrian state-run SANA news agency, making it the most expensive passport in the world.

RECOMMENDED READS:

• BBC NEWS: Meeting an Organ Trafficker Who Preys on Syrian Refugees
• ABC News: Syrian Government Says U.S. Sanctions Over Chemical Attack Will Harm Regular Syrians
• Reuters: Syrian Refugees Must Buy Travel Papers – From Assad
• The Telegraph: Revealed: How Britain’s Former Syria Ambassador Appeared on BBC to Defend Assad, After Quietly Taking a Job With Dictator’s Father-in-Law
• Syria Untold: Kurdish Women’s Organizations: Awareness and Politics