Syria Kurds say Turkish airstrike kills 9 civilians
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This photo taken on February 27, 2016 shows smoke rising from the Syrian city of Tel Abyad during clashes between Deash and People's Protection Units (YPG). (Photo by AFP)
Turkish forces have killed at least nine civilians in a Syrian border town as Ankara expands its military intervention in the Arab country.
Eyewitnesses told the independent Syrian ARA news agency on Wednesday that six children and three women lost their lives in a Turkish bombing of the Kurdish-populated town of Kahila.
They said the airstrike hit a residential area of the town, leaving more than a dozen others injured.
Kahila is near the Syrian border town of Tel Abyad which is located 100 kilometers north of Raqqah, the de facto capital of the Daesh terrorist group.
Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), a US-backed militant group in Syria, condemned the bombing, saying Turkish forces “are targeting innocent civilians under the pretext of combating terrorism."
"However, we’ll not allow Turkey to continue those violations at the border. We are ready to respond and we’ll do whatever it takes in order to stop this offensive against our people,” YPG said in a statement.
The YPG statement said Ankara is targeting Kurdish areas in northern Syria “to undermine the Kurdish progress" against Daesh terrorists.
Ankara views YPG and its allied Democratic Union Party (PYD) as terrorist forces linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been fighting for autonomy in Turkey’s Kurdish-dominated regions for decades.
ME
