Air strikes kill 30
At least 30 civilians were killed in air strikes on an area of eastern Syria held by the Islamic State group yesterday, a monitoring group said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it was not immediately able to say whether the strikes in Deir Ezzor province were carried out by the US-led coalition, or by the Syrian army or its Russian ally. They came just two days after a suspected coalition strike on an IS jail in the province killed 42 prisoners and 15 jihadists, according to an Observatory toll.
Yesterday’s strikes hit an area 20 kilometers east of Mayadeen, the town where the prison bombing took place. Most of Deir Ezzor province is controlled by the jihadists and it has been the target of air strikes by the US-led coalition as well as the Syrian army and Russia. The coalition has been hitting IS in both Syria and Iraq since mid2014 and the jihadists are under growing pressure in both countries. Syria’s war has killed more than 320,000 people and forced millions from their homes since it began in March 2011 with anti-government protests.
Turkey, Kurdish militia clash
Meanwhile, the Turkish army and Syrian Kurdish militia have exchanged fire in northern Syria, the Turkish military said yesterday, amid growing tensions in the border region. The army said in a statement that forces of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) had fired on proAnkara rebels close to the rebel-held town of Azaz in northern Syria late Tuesday. The Turkish military launched artillery fire on the YPG in retaliation, destroying several targets belonging to the group.
No further details were given. Turkey considers the YPG a terrorist group and the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) which has waged an insurgency inside Turkey since 1984. Ankara worries that the YPG wants to carve out a Kurdish region in northern Syria, a step Turkey vehemently opposes. But the United States is openly arming the YPG, as it considers the Kurdish militia group the most effective fighting force against jihadists in Syria. Last August, Turkey launched its Euphrates Shield crossborder operation aimed at clearing the border zone in northern Syria of both YPG fighters and jihadists. —Agencies