Dozens killed as Turkey ramps up Syria offensive
BEIRUT: Dozens of people were killed in Turkish bombardment in Syria on Sunday as Ankara ramped up its unprecedented offensive inside the country against the Daesh group and Kurdish militants.
The Britain- based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 40 civilians had been killed in Turkish shelling and air strikes on two areas held by proKurdish forces in northern Syria, the first report of significant civilian casualties in Turkey’s operation.
But Ankara said its raids had killed 25 Kurdish “terrorists” and that the army was doing everything to avoid civilian casualties.
The bombardments came after Ankara suffered its first military fatality in the offensive against Daesh militants and the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia it launched on Wednesday.
The Observatory said at least 20 civilians were killed and 50 wounded in Turkish artillery fire and airstrikes on the village of Jeb El-Kussa early on Sunday.
Another 20 were killed and 25 wounded, many seriously, in Turkish air strikes near the town of Al-Amarneh, it added.
The monitor also said at least four Kurdish fighters had been killed and 15 injured in Turkish bombardment of the two areas.
A spokesman for the local Kurdish administration said 75 civilians had been killed in both villages
But the Turkish army said it had killed 25 Kurdish “terrorists” from Turkey’s outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and Syria’s YPG, state-run Anadolu news agency said.
“All possible measures are being taken to prevent harm to the civilian population living in the area,” the army said, quoted by Anadolu.
The Observatory said the bombardment targeted an area south of the former Daesh border stronghold of Jarabulus, which Turkishled forces captured on the first day of the incursion.