Turkish raid kills 20 Kurdish fighters

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beirut — Turkish warplanes killed more than 20 Kurdish fighters on Tuesday in strikes in Syria and Iraq, where the Kurds are key players in the battle against the Daesh group.

The deadliest bombardment was on the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), who are leading the US-backed fight for the important Daesh-held town of Tabqa in northern Syria.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said Turkish planes carried out “dozens of simultaneous air strikes” on YPG positions in northeastern Hasakeh province overnight, including a media centre.

Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said the strikes killed 18 people, one of the highest death tolls from Turkish air raids on Kurdish militia.

“Three of them are media officials and 15 of them are YPG fighters,” Abdel Rahman said.

In a statement distributed to journalists, the YPG confirmed the Turkish bombardment and said there were casualties but did not give a toll.

“Turkish planes carried out a broad offensive on a YPG base that houses media and communication centres and some military installations,” the statement said. —

Three of them are media officials and 15 of them are ypG fighters’. Rami Abdel Rahman, Observatory head