15 Syrian soldiers killed in Turkey’s air strikes at Kurdish areas, 14 civilians, 31 SDF Kurds

At least 15 Syrian soldiers were killed in Turkey’s massive strike at Kurdish areas in the Aleppo, Raqqa, and al-Hasakah governorates, the Erbil-based Rudaw television channel reported on Sunday.

According to earlier reports, six soldiers from army units that has been deployed to northern Syria to repel a possible Turkish attack were killed. Apart from that, 14 civilians, including a local reporter, were also killed. The biggest number of casualties was reported from the vicinity of the city of Al-Malikiyah, where Turkey’s air raid left 11 people dead and six more wounded. An electricity plant feeding the city was damaged.

The losses of the Kurdish units of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) amounted to 30 people, either killed or wounded.

The SDF command said earlier that an air strike had been delivered at the center of the city of Ayn al-Arab (or Kobani) located 150 kilometers of the governorate’s center of Aleppo. The SDF called on the international community to "pay attention to the barbarous actions of Turkish troops and their consequences for the civilian population."

Meanwhile, Turkey’s defense ministry reported that 89 targets had been destroyed during the night air attack in northern Iraq and Syria. The ministry claimed that strikes had been delivered at places of deployment of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party and Syrian Kurdish units that are outlawed in Turkey. The air strike was backed by artillery fire.

Experts say that Turkey’s cross-border operation in northern Iraq and Syria was a response to the November 13 terror attack in Istanbul, which left six people dead and more than 80 injured. Investigators place the blame for it on the Kurdistan Workers’ Party and People's Defense Units.
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Turkey launched airstrikes over several towns in northern Syria on Saturday, U.S.-backed Kurdish-led forces reported. At least 31 people were killed in northern Syria, primarily in positions held by Syrian Kurdish forces, a Britain-based war monitoring group said on Sunday.

Nearly 25 strikes hit Raqa, Hassakeh and Aleppo provinces, killing 18 members of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, 12 members of Syria’s military and one journalist, said the so-called "Syrian Observatory for Human Rights".

The airstrikes occurred a week after a bomb rocked a bustling avenue in the heart of Istanbul, killing six people and wounding over 80 others. Turkish authorities blamed the attack on the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, as well as Syrian Kurdish groups affiliated with it. The Kurdish militants groups have, however, denied involvement.

Ankara and Washington both consider the PKK a terror group, but disagree on the status of the Syrian Kurdish groups, which have been allied with the U.S. in the fight against the Islamic State group in Syria.
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