Turkish-backed forces shell Ain Issa after a tense calm

For nearly a week, Turkey had not launched attacks on areas held by the SDF in northern Syria.
Turkish-backed groups shelling Ain Issa on Tuesday, Apr. 5, 2022 (Photo: Hussein Farman/Twitter)
Turkish-backed groups shelling Ain Issa on Tuesday, Apr. 5, 2022 (Photo: Hussein Farman/Twitter)

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Turkish forces and their proxy factions fired heavy artillery shells on positions of Syrian Democratic Forces near Ain Issa in the province of Raqqa, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) war monitor reported on Thursday.  No casualties were reported.

For nearly a week, Turkey had not launched attacks on areas held by the SDF in northern Syria.

 On April 6, however, Turkish forces shelled the silos of the SDF-controlled village of Fatsah in Ain Issa countryside, in the northeastern countryside of Al-Raqqah.

Moreover, in a rare incident, on April 7, Turkey carried out a drone strike on Sulaimani International Airport, where Syrian Kurdish officials, including the SDF commander-in-chief Mazloum Abdi, were at the airport. 

The Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) Council of Ministers on Wednesday established a committee to investigate the suspension of flights and subsequent attack that took place near the Sulaimani Airport.

Turkey has carried out several drone strikes targeting the SDF and local civilian officials in northeast Syria. However, strikes on Syrian Kurdish officials visiting Iraqi Kurdistan are rare.

The last time a similar attack took place was in June 2022, where Ferhad Shibli, deputy chairman of the Executive Council of the Autonomous administration of North and East Syria (AANES), who was visiting the Kurdistan Region due to health issues, was killed in a Turkish drone strike in Kalar.