Turkish drone targets Rojava administration members in Hasaka: Monitor

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - At least four members of northeast Syria’s (Rojava) Kurdish administration were killed in a suspected Turkish drone attack in the vicinity of Hasaka, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported on Tuesday. 

“A Turkish drone targeted a Kia model car on the road between bordering villages Bayandour and Tal Sha'er at 11:30AM,” a resident from Bayandour who witnessed the moment of the attack told Rudaw, claiming that four of the passengers were killed and the driver was wounded.

SOHR reported that one of the casualties was an official from the administration.

Media affiliated with the Kurdish armed forces in Rojava reported on the strike as well, but refrained from labeling it as an attack on officials of the Kurdish administration, simply stating that a car had been targeted and injuries were incurred.
The UK-based war monitor said that Tuesday’s strike was Ankara’s 26th attack on areas under the control of the Rojava administration since the start of the year, in which at least 39 people have been killed.

Turkey has conducted three offensives against the People’s Protection Units (YPG), backbone of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), since 2016, and it has recently threatened to carry out a fresh military campaign against them in the near future.

Ankara claims that the YPG is the Syrian offshoot of Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) - armed group struggling for the increased rights of Kurds in Turkey but listed as a terrorist group by Ankara.