Rockets fired from Syrian territory targeted a Turkish border post on Sunday (November 20th), injuring at least three security forces, Turkey’s official Anadolu news agency reported. The latter accused the YPG, People’s Protection Units, a movement of Kurdish fighters established in northern Syria, targeted by the operation called “Sword Claw”.
During the night from Saturday to Sunday, Turkey launched this aerial operation in northern Iraq and neighboring Syria, killing around 30 people. It targeted regions under the control of the Syrian Kurdish forces and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), accused by Ankara of the attack in Istanbul which killed six people and injured 81 on November 13.
Between 2016 and 2019, Turkey had already carried out three major operations in northern Syria that targeted Kurdish militias and organizations, taking control of Afrin and forcing many civilians to flee.
In a statement, the Turkish Defense Ministry wrote: “Operation Sword Claw was successfully conducted as part of our strategy to eliminate terrorist attacks from northern Iraq and Syria, secure borders and eliminate terrorism at its source”. A total of 89 targets, including shelters, tunnels, ammunition depots, command posts and training camps were “destroyed”and “many terrorists have been neutralized”the ministry added.
The strikes mainly targeted the city of Kobani and its surroundings, near the Turkish border, including grain silos near Al-Malikiyah and a power plant in the south of this province, located in areas under the control of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF, Kurdish-dominated armed coalition).
Turkish strikes completely destroyed the fourth power plant in Taql Bakl, near Al-Malikiyah, in southern Hassakeh province, reported an Agence France-Presse (AFP) photographer, who saw on the spot Sunday morning corpses near a car. The shelling also targeted positions where Damascus regime forces are deployed, in Raqa, Hassaké and Aleppo, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH).
No casualties in Iraqi Kurdistan
“These attacks by the Turkish occupation state will not go unanswered. At the right time and place, we will respond with strength and efficiency.”, promised in a press release the FDS, before the announcement of rocket fire against the Turkish border. The official Syrian agency Sana, for its part, confirmed the death of several Syrian soldiers, without specifying the number. The Syrian Ministry of Defense has denounced “Turkish attacks” in which “soldiers were killed”.
At war since 2011, Syria is fragmented due to the intervention of multiple groups and foreign powers in the conflict. Turkey, whose soldiers are present in areas of northern Syria, has been threatening since May to launch a major offensive against the SDF, which it considers “terrorists”. Ankara says it wants to create a “safe area” 30 kilometers wide at its southern border.
On the other hand, the Turkish strikes did not “no victim” in northern Iraq, an official of the Kurdistan regional government of Iraq told AFP. According to a PKK spokesperson “These operations are not new, they have been going on for seven months without interruption”. He claimed that “the Turkish army carried out 3,694 bombardments on the soil of Iraqi Kurdistan” during this period.