The Turkish air force on Saturday evening, March 20, carried out airstrikes against an area held by Kurdish militias in northern Syria, the first in seventeen months, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported. ‘man (OSDH).
“Turkish fighter jets target Syrian Democratic Forces military positions [FDS, dominées par les Kurdes] in the village of Saïda, near the town of Aïn Issa ”, said this NGO based in the United Kingdom.
“These are the first air raids since Operation Source of Peace” “ launched in October 2019 by Ankara and allied Syrian groups against the SDF in northern Syria, OSDH director Rami Abdel Rahmane told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The operation, interrupted after two agreements negotiated by Ankara with Washington, then with Moscow, had enabled Ankara to seize a border strip 120 kilometers wide in Syrian territory and about thirty kilometers deep.
The city of Aïn Issa and its surroundings, however, remained in the hands of Kurdish forces.
The fighting rages on in Aïn Issa
These raids come as the fighting rages on the outskirts of this strategic locality, according to the OSDH. “The clashes have continued between the two camps for twenty-four hours, (…) the Turkish forces are struggling to advance while the SDF managed to destroy a Turkish tank “, told AFP Mr. Abdel Rahmane.
The People’s Protection Units (YPG), an integral part of the SDF, are seen by Ankara 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 at the forefront of the armed struggle against the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria, with the support of the international anti-jihadist coalition.
In order to curb the territorial expansion of the YPG in northern Syria, Ankara has since 2016 carried out three military offensives targeting both ISIS and Kurdish fighters. These operations allowed him to control an area of more than 2,000 km2 in northern Syria, including the Afrin region, one of the region’s three cantons “Federal” Self-proclaimed Kurdish in 2016.
The conflict in Syria, triggered in 2011 by the repression of pro-democracy protests by the Damascus regime, has grown in complexity over the years, involving several regional and international actors. The war has left more than 388,000 dead and millions displaced.
