BEIRUT: Turkey said Wednesday it launched deadly strikes against Kurdish targets in Iraq and Syria, where Kurd forces have been left reeling from the largest Islamic State group attack in nearly three years.
The raids on Tuesday night targeted shelters, tunnels, caves, ammunition depots, bases and training camps operated by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the People’s Protection Units (YPG) which Ankara views as terrorist groups, the Turkish defence ministry said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Syria strikes hit a Kurdish-run power station near the town of Al-Malikiyah in Hasakeh province, where a brazen jailbreak attempt by IS jihadists last month sparked days of clashes that have left hundreds dead.
“At least four people were killed in the strike targeting a power station near Al-Malikiyah,” the Britain-based war monitor said, adding they were all security guards.
Later on Wednesday, shelling on the Turkish-held city of Al-Bab in northern Syria killed eight people, including five civilians, according to the Observatory.
The war monitor didn’t specify who was responsible but Kurdish forces and Syrian regime troops are both deployed in the region.
In northern Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region, Turkish strikes on Tuesday hit PKK positions in the Makhmur and Sinjar regions, where bombardment caused “human and material losses”, Kurdish authorities said, without specifying a casualty toll.
As part of the attack, which drew condemnation from Baghdad, Turkish “military aircraft bombarded six PKK positions in the Karjokh mountains”, which overlook a camp for Kurdish refugees from Turkey, Kurdish counter-terrorism services said in a statement.
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