Airstrike 'likely' by Turkish warplane kills 20 civilians in Syrian Kurdistan

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – As many as 20 civilians were killed in an apparently Turkish airstrike in the Islamic State (IS)-occupied Kurdish village of Taltana in northern Syria, said a human rights group on Wednesday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) stated that three children were among the killed whose numbers was expected to rise in the village located 16 kilometers north of the city of al-Bab in Aleppo governorate.

Warplanes of both Turkey and the United States-led anti-IS Coalition operate in parts of Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava).

The multi-ethnic city of Al-Bab which is between the two Kurdish Cantons of Afrin and Kobani has been under the control of IS since late 2013.

Kurdish forces of Peoples' Protection Units (YPG) and Turkey-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) factions are in a rush to capture the city from the IS.

Turkey launched an incursion into Syria codenamed Operation Euphrates Shield with the FSA in late August in an attempt to drive off the IS from its southern border and prevent the Kurds from creating a contiguous autonomous region there.

The number of Turkish casualties, meanwhile, who fight alongside the FSA on Syrian soil rose to 11 on Wednesday as the Turkey's General Staff announced the killing of another soldier in clashes with the IS in the village of Ziyarah near the border, reported semi-official Anadolu Agency.

In an August 28 airstrike on the YPG-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)-held village of Suraysat, south of Jarablus, a Turkish airstrike killed at least 24 civilians and 15 Kurdish fighters according to a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report.

Last week, Turkish border guards killed nine civilians by opening fire on the village of Kuheyla near the border town of Tel Abyad.

Editing by Ava Homa