Turkish Strikes Kill, Wound Dozens Of Syrian Soldiers, SDF Fighters & Civilians In Aleppo (Video)

The escalation began on June 11, when a Turkish drone strike killed three fighters of the People’s Protection Units (YPG), the core faction of the SDF, and wounded two others in the northern Aleppo countryside. The faction responded a few hours after the strike with a rocket attack that targeted the Jibreen base area in the Turkish-occupied part of the northern Aleppo countryside as well as the Oncupinar region in southern Turkey.

In the following days, the SDF-linked Hawar News Agency reported 14 Turkish drone strikes and dozens of artillery strikes that targeted the outskirts of the towns of Manbij and Tell Rifaat as well as the southern part of the Afrin area in the northern Aleppo countryside.

The retaliatory Turkish strikes hit residential areas, positions of the SDF as well as posts of the Syrian Arab Army (SAA), which is present in the Kurdish-held part of the northern Aleppo countryside to prevent the Turkish military and its proxies from launching any new ground operations.

The news agency said that by June 15, the strikes had claimed the lives of a total of 21 people, including three fighters of the YPG, eight others from the Manbij Military Council (MMC), an Arab faction of the SDF, as well as nine Syrian soldiers and a civilian.

The strikes also wounded two fighters of the YPG, three from the MMC, six soldiers and at least nine civilians, including two children.

Meanwhile, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a London-based pro-opposition monitoring group, reported seven Turkish drone strikes between June 14 and 15. The group said that the strikes killed five Syrian soldiers, six fighters from the MMC and four commanders of the SDF.

The Turkish Ministry of National Defense released footage of the retaliatory strikes on June 15 and claimed that 57 “terrorists” were neutralized. The ministry refers to the fighters of the SDF and its affiliates as “terrorists” and usually uses the term “neutralized” to indicate that the personnel in question were either killed or wounded.

From its side, the Syrian Ministry of Defense has not commented yet on the reports of casualties among its personnel in recent Turkish strikes.

It’s worth noting that on June 12, a Russian service member was killed and several others were wounded when a patrol of the Russian Military Police was hit between the towns of Herbel and Um Hawsh in the northern Aleppo countryside. The SOHR said that the patrol was shelled by the Turkish military. However, Russian sources said that it was targeted with a roadside bomb.

The escalation in the northern Aleppo countryside came as senior diplomats from Russia, Turkey, Iran and Syria are preparing to meet in Astana next week to discuss the normalization process between Ankara and Damascus.

Source: SouthFront