The Turkish air force bombed an area controlled by Kurdish militias in northern Syria on Saturday night (03/20/2021), the first attacks in 17 months, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH) said.
“A Turkish fighter plane attacked military positions of the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the town of Saida, near the town of Ain Isa,” he said.
“They are the first airstrikes since the Operation ‘Spring of Peace'” launched in October 2019 by Ankara and Syrian groups allied against the SDF in northern Syria, reported the director of the OSDH, Rami Abdel Rahman.
That action, interrupted after two agreements negotiated by Ankara with Washington and Moscow, allowed Turkey to seize a border strip 120 km long in Syrian territory. But the city of Ain Isa and its surroundings remained in the hands of Kurdish forces.
These attacks occur at times of fierce fighting on the outskirts of this strategic town, according to the OSDH.
“The clashes between the two sides have continued for 24 hours (…) the Turkish forces have problems advancing and the SDF managed to destroy a Turkish tank,” said Abdel Rahman.
Ankara regards the People’s Protection Units (YPG), a part of the SDF, as the Syrian extension of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a group classified as “terrorist” by Ankara and its Western allies.
But this Kurdish militia has also been on the front line in the armed struggle against the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria, with the support of the international anti-jihadist coalition.
The war in Syria, triggered in 2011 by the repression of pro-democracy protests by the Damascus regime, has been complicated over the years by the intervention of regional and international actors.
The war has caused more than 388,000 deaths and millions of displaced people.
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