Turkish drone kills one in Qamishli: Monitor

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - At least one person was killed and another was injured on Monday in a suspected Turkish drone strike on the city of Qamishli in northeast Syria (Rojava), a war monitor reported. 

“One person was killed and another was injured as a result of a Turkish drone strike targeting near the Heart and Eye Hospital in the al-Sina’a neighborhood in the city of Qamishli,” said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based war monitor. 

Turkey’s defense ministry has yet to comment on the attack. 

Ankara frequently conducts air and drone strikes against Kurdish forces in northern Syria for alleged links to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), claiming that they pose a threat to Turkey. 

Hawar News Agency, a local media outlet affiliated with the Kurdish administration in Rojava, said that a post office in Qamishli was targeted by the strike, in addition to the hospital. 

Turkey has increasingly intensified its attacks on suspected PKK positions in Rojava and the Kurdistan Region, including by sending ground troops to the latter’s Amedi district in Duhok province. In March, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said they are close to completing a zone in the Kurdistan Region to  “permanently resolve” their border security issues. 

On Monday, SOHR reported that Turkey has carried out 90 strikes in Rojava so far this year, killing at least 29 people.