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At least 11 killed in Turkish strike on northeast Syria

October 09, 2023 / 12:40 PM
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Sharjah24 - AFP: At a police training facility in Kurdish-controlled northeast Syria, a Turkish airstrike on Monday left 11 Kurdish security personnel dead and dozens more injured, according to a war monitor.
"Eleven killed and dozens wounded after a Turkish war plane targeted a training centre" belonging to the internal security forces, known as the Asayish, on the outskirts of Al-Malikiyeh in Hasakeh province, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The Kurdish force reported the strike in a statement, saying that "a number of our forces were killed and others wounded".

AFP correspondents said authorities in the area have called for blood donations.

Amid the chaos of Syria's long-running civil conflict, Syria's Kurds have carved out a semi-autonomous area in the country's northeast.

Since Thursday, Turkey has been bombing sites in the area, hitting civilian and military targets and infrastructure and causing casualties, according to Kurdish authorities.

Turkey's defence ministry said Friday it had launched the new wave of air strikes in retaliation for an attack in Ankara earlier this month that wounded two security personnel.

A branch of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) -- listed as a terror group by Ankara and its Western allies -- claimed responsibility for the first bombing to hit the Turkish capital since 2016.

Turkey launched strikes on PKK positions in northern Iraq hours after the October 1 attack, with Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan saying days later that the assailants "came from Syria and were trained there".

The US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces led the battle that dislodged Islamic State group fighters from their last scraps of territory in Syria in 2019.

Turkey views the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) that dominate the SDF as an offshoot of the PKK.
October 09, 2023 / 12:40 PM

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