Northern Syria is subject to a rain of bombs. Several deadly strikes on rebel areas of the country took place on Friday, October 6, in response to a drone attack the day before against an officer promotions ceremony that left dozens dead. And at the same time, the Turkish army is carrying out new raids against Kurdish targets in the country in retaliation for a bomb attack in Ankara.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH), at least twenty-four civilians died in nearly twenty-four hours, following various strikes by the Syrian army against the last rebel stronghold in the country, in the North West.
A multiple rocket launcher (MRL) attack in the province of Idlib in the evening left nine victims, including five minors. In a hospital in the town of the same name, staff seemed overwhelmed by the influx of injured people, according to a correspondent for Agence France-Presse (AFP). The streets were almost deserted, with residents hiding in their homes amid rumors of new strikes.
The Syrian army has promised to “respond firmly” to the attack on the Homs military academy, which occurred Thursday in the center of the country under central control, and which left 89 dead, including thirty-one women and five children, and 277 injured, according to the authorities. The OSDH gave a heavier toll of 123 dead, including fifty-four civilians, including thirty-nine children, and some 150 injured.
Three days of mourning
Dozens of victims’ relatives gathered early Friday in front of the Homs military hospital from where ambulances transported the officers’ remains to their final resting place. The Minister of Defense, Ali Mahmoud Abbas, attended the funeral of around thirty soldiers and civilians. He participated in the ceremony Thursday but left before the attack, according to a witness and the OSDH. The authorities proclaimed three days of mourning.
The attack, one of the bloodiest against the army since the start of the war in 2011, was not claimed. Syrian forces regained control of Homs, a former rebel stronghold, in 2017, but jihadist groups, which control part of Syrian territory, and fighters from the Islamic State (IS) organization sometimes use drones to attack Syrian forces and their Russian ally.
Russian President Vladimir Putin assured in a message of condolences to his Syrian counterpart, Bashar Al-Assad, that he had “the intention to continue [la] close cooperation with Syrian partners to fight against any form (…) of terrorism ». The Russian air force is also continuing its raids on the Idlib region. Earlier on Friday, a child was killed by a Russian strike, according to the OSDH.
United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed his concern, and UN special envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen called on Thursday for “immediate de-escalation”. Started in 2011, the conflict in Syria has left more than half a million dead and divided the country.
Fifteen dead including eight civilians in Turkish raids
Furthermore, in the north-east of the country, where the Kurds have established an autonomous administration, Turkey carried out, on Friday, for the second consecutive day, a series of raids on infrastructure, targeting the main gas power plants.
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These new strikes, in retaliation for an attack which targeted the Interior Ministry in Ankara on Sunday, injuring two police officers, bring the death toll from two days of bombing to fifteen dead, including eight civilians, according to Kurdish officials, who had gave an initial toll of sixteen deaths.
A branch of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), considered a terrorist group by Ankara and its Western allies, claimed responsibility for the first bomb attack targeting the Turkish capital since 2016. Turkey concluded that the two attackers who died in of the attack on Ankara came from Syria. The Turkish operation in Syria mainly targets oil and other energy installations controlled by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG).
Incident between Turkey and the United States
The group is part of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) – the de facto Kurdish army in the region – which responded on Friday by targeting two bases under the control of Turkish forces and pro-Ankara factions in western Syria. the province of Hassake. A member of the Turkish special forces, injured in a missile attack against a military base in northern Syria, has died, Turkish authorities announced Friday.
The US-backed SDF led the battle to dislodge IS jihadists from the region in 2019. US support for the YPG has deteriorated Ankara’s ties with Washington since the jihadists’ defeat.
In a telephone conversation, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said with his American counterpart Antony Blinken that Ankara’s airstrikes in Syria would continue “with determination” despite the destruction by the United States on Thursday of a Turkish combat drone involved in the operation. Washington said an F-16 jet shot down the drone after it came close enough to U.S. positions supporting Kurdish fighters to be considered a security threat. This incident is the first of its kind between NATO’s strategic allies.