Turkey attacks Syrian Kurdish forces, 'kills 160'

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – Warplanes belonging to the Turkish Air Force conducted airstrikes on 18 Kurdish positions and killed “160 – 200” fighters on Wednesday night in northwestern Syria, Turkish media claimed.

Citing information from the Turkish General Staff, the state-run Anadolu Agency (AA) said Turkish bombers attacked the Kurdish village of Maarat Um Hawsh under control of the People’s Protection Units (YPG) in the Afrin Canton, north of Aleppo.

Kurdish forces confirmed the Turkish aerial bombardment reporting at least 20 airstrikes were carried out in Umm Hawsh and Um Qura villages where they were making “fresh advances” against the Islamic State (IS) positions eastward.

There was no announcement of casualties by the Kurds at the time of publishing this report.

According to a statement on the Facebook page of the United States-backed YPG, Kurdish positions were also hit by at least 100 rounds of Turkish artillery shelling.

The attacks extended to the western part of Afrin too where the villages of Jindiras and Rajo on the border with Turkey were shelled.

Turkey has intermittently staged attacks on Syrian Kurdish forces, particularly in Kobani and Afrin Cantons.

The two cantons are separated by the IS-held city of al-Bab and the town of Jarablus which Free Syrian Army (FSA) factions captured in a late August Turkish incursion into Syria.

The raid dubbed as “the Euphrates Shield” aims to drive IS from the Turkish border and prevent the Kurds from uniting Afrin with Kobani.

On Tuesday, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to capture the town of Manbij west of the River Euphrates which the YPG, supported by US special forces and airstrikes, liberated in mid-August.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany