Several people have been killed in Turkish air strikes on Kurds in northern Iraq and Syria. There are said to be eight civilians among them. Turkey previously said 26 “terrorists were neutralized” over the weekend.
At least eight civilians have been killed in Turkish air strikes in Kurdish-controlled northern Syria, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Five of those who died worked in a printing shop in the northern Syrian town of Kamishli, which is close to the border with Turkey, it said. The air strikes hit more than 20 targets in the region.
The Kurdish news agency ANHA and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) also spoke of a total of eight deaths. An SDF spokesman wrote on the short message service X, formerly Twitter, that the air strikes had destroyed “more than 25” civilian facilities.
Bombing after killing soldiers
According to Turkish information, twelve soldiers were killed in attacks on Turkish bases in northern Iraq on Friday and Saturday. Turkey blamed Kurdish militants for the attacks and carried out airstrikes on targets in northern Iraq and northern Syria.
According to the Turkish military, at least 26 “terrorists were neutralized.” The Ministry of Defense announced this on Monday. As a rule, the government in Ankara uses the term “neutralize” to mean that people are killed, injured or captured. The information could not be independently verified.
Fight across national borders
The PKK, which is on the terrorist list in Turkey, Europe and the United States, has its headquarters in the Qandil Mountains in northern Iraq. Tens of thousands of people have already been killed in the conflict with the Turkish state. A peace process failed in 2015. Since then, Ankara has again taken regular action against the PKK in southeastern Turkey and northern Iraq, which in turn has carried out attacks.