CAIRO/ANKARA (Reuters) – At least 14 civilians were killed and 29 wounded in attacks by Turkish-backed forces in northern Syria on Monday and Tuesday, the U.S.-backed Kurdish militia group said.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said Turkish-backed forces targeted a market in the city of Sarrin with drones on Tuesday, killing eight civilians and injuring 20 others. Some of the wounded were in critical condition, they said.
Shelling by Turkish-backed forces on another area in northern Syria killed three civilians and injured nine on Tuesday, according to the SDF. They said Turkish forces also shelled a village near the town of Ain Issa in northern Syria on Monday, killing three civilians, including two children.
Turkey’s defence ministry said in statements on Tuesday and Wednesday that Turkish forces had killed a total of 27 Kurdish militants in northern Syria, without mentioning civilian deaths.
A Turkish defence ministry official said on Wednesday the SDF’s statement was disinformation and denied the claims. Turkey says it does not target civilians in its cross-border operations and takes measures to avoid harming any civilians, religious sites and residential areas.
The SDF, an ally in the U.S. coalition against Islamic State militants, is spearheaded by the YPG – a group that Turkey sees as a terrorist organisation and an extension of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) that has fought the Turkish state for 40 years.
Since the ouster of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad in December by rebels who have set up an administration friendly to Ankara, Syria’s Kurdish factions have been on the back foot. It is not clear whether Washington’s longtime support for Kurdish forces will continue under the administration of President Donald Trump.
Negotiators from the Syrian leadership, the United States, Turkey, and the SDF have been zeroing in on a potential deal on the group’s fate. Syria’s new leadership wants to bring all of the country back under the government’s authority.
The SDF on Wednesday rejected Turkey’s statement on the number of its fighters killed in attacks this week.
(Reporting by Menna Alaa El-Din in Cairo and Tuvan Gumrukcu in Ankara; Editing by Ros Russell)
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