INTERNATIONAL

Turkish air strikes hit several towns across northern Syria, including the city of Kobane late Saturday, said Kurdish-led forces there and a Britain-based monitoring group.

At least six members of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and six pro-government soldiers were killed in the strikes, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Kurdish-led forces based in Syria said at least two villages hit in the attack were populated with internally displaced people (IDPs), including areas in the eastern countryside around Kobane, also known as Ain al-Arab.

The strikes come just days after Ankara blamed the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) for last Sunday’s deadly bombing in central Istanbul. Turkey said on Tuesday that it planned to pursue targets in northern Syria after it completed a cross-border operation against the group.

“#Kobane, the city that defeated ISIS, is subjected to bombardment by the aircraft of the Turkish occupation,” tweeted Farhad Shami, a spokesman for the SDF.

Turkey considers the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) – the main component of the SDF – an extension of the outlawed PKK.

The Turkish defence ministry tweeted late on Saturday that “the hour of reckoning has come” with a photo of a fighter jet taking off.

Kobane, a Kurdish-majority town in Syria near the Turkish border was captured by the self-styled Islamic State group in late 2014, before Kurdish fighters drove them out early the following year.

Source: Middle East Eye

Photo: AFP