A Turkish drone attack in the city of Qamisli in Northeast Syria left several people injured on Monday, Hawar News Agency (ANHA) reported. No details on casualties have yet been provided.
The drone targeted an area near a cemetery in one of the city’s neighborhoods, ANHA said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) confirmed the Turkish drone strike, saying that it left two people dead and several injured, at a military position near Al-Shuhadaa graveyard.
The number of drone strikes targeting areas under the control of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) in 2022 totaled 62, SOHR noted, saying that these attacks left 61 fighters affiliated with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), and eleven civilians, including seven children, dead. Over 100 people were injured by Turkish drone strikes in the same period of time.
The Kurdish-led SDF is part of the global coalition that has been fighting the Islamic State (ISIS) and trying to prevent the group’s resurgence in Northern Syria.
The attacks peaked in February with 10 strikes, in April with 11 strikes, and in August with 13 strikes.
The Turkish military has been waging a war against the SDF for the last five years, claiming that its major component People’s Protection Units (YPG) is linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), designated a “terrorist” organization by Ankara.
In one of its military campaigns in Northern Syria, the Turkish forces and armed factions affiliated with it occupied the Kurdish-majority city of Afrin in March 2018, only to hand it over in mid October to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an offshoot of Al-Qaeda and designated a “terrorist” organization by the United States.
