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9 die in Turkish attacks on Tel Abyad
[ARA News] TEL ABYAD – At least nine civilians were killed and several others wounded in an attack by the Turkish army forces near the Syrian border city of Tel Abyad, north of Raqqa, local sources reported on Wednesday.Turkey’s military has reportedly bombarded the Kurdish-populated town of Kahila near Tel Abyad with heavy artillery. “Six children and three women lost their lives under the Turkish bombardment,” eyewitnesses told ARA News, adding that more than a dozen of civilians were also injured in the attack. The operation caused a massive destruction in civilian houses in the town. In the meantime, leadership of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), condemned the Turkish attack. The YPG said in a statement that Turkey is targeting Kurdish areas in northern Syria “to undermine the Kurdish progress against ISIS”. “They [Turkish forces] are targeting innocent civilians under the pretext of combatting terrorism. However, we’ll not allow Turkey to continue those violations at the border. We are ready to respond and we’ll do whatever it takes in order to stop this offensive against our people,” it said. The Kurdish YPG fighters, backed by allies from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), had recaptured the strategic city of Tel Abyad on the border with Turkey in June 2015, subsequent to fierce battles against ISIS militants. Liberating Tel Abyad and its countryside caused a state of alert among ISIS militants, especially for its location in northern Raqqa –the group’s de facto capital in Syria. Since then, the Kurdish positions have been exposed to several attacks by Turkey’s military on the one hand, and ISIS on the other. Speaking to ARA News, YPG officer Habun Osman accused the Turkish government of supporting ISIS to retake Tel Abyad and its border crossing “to assist the terror group export its oil to the black market via Turkey”. “Before the YPG-SDF forces retook Tel Abyad from ISIS in early 2015, the terror group used to export its oil tankers through this border crossing to the black market,” he said. “When ISIS was in control here, Turkey has never attacked the group’s positions. Now that Tel Abyad is under the Kurdish control, the Turkish army continues to attack the area,” the YPG official told ARA News. This is not the first time for Turkey to target Syrian Kurds. The Turkish army has earlier launched more than 22 attacks on Kurdish positions in northern Syria, according to military sources. Most of the attacks targeted YPG-held areas in Aleppo, Kobane, and northern Raqqa. Posted by: badanov 2016-09-29 |
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