Syrian military retaliates against Turkish airstrikes

Turkish positions inside Syria have come under attacks by the Syrian military following two bouts of airstrikes by Turkey that targeted separate locations across the Arab country.

The Syrian Armed Forces carried out the counterattack on Tuesday, causing material and human losses in some Turkish military sites inside Syria, Syrian state media reported. The Army also targeted the positions of some armed groups and damaged their training centers.

The reprisal came after a Turkish airstrike killed at least three Syrian soldiers and wounded six others near the western Syrian city of Aleppo.

Syria’s state television specified the target of the Turkish blitz as “military positions,” saying the Turkish warplanes had struck the target between 14:37 p.m. and 15:00 p.m. local time (11:37 and 12:00 GMT).

Earlier in the day, a Turkish aerial offensive had claimed the lives of at least 11 people in the war-torn country’s Kurdish-majority north.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based so-called monitor, described the fatalities as "fighters," saying the deaths were caused after Turkish aircraft hit an outpost in the village of Jarqali, west of the Kurdish-held border town of Kobani.

The monitor failed to specify whether those who had been killed were affiliated with the Syrian Army or Kurdish militants.

Since 2016, Turkey has launched three military operations inside Syria to target the United States-backed militants, known as the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG). Ankara accuses the YPG of being associated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been fighting a separatist war against Ankara for decades.

ME