Turkey often targets Rojava, killing and injuring civilians and security forces, and has conducted several military operations in the area since 2016. It claims that the People’s Protection Units (YPG), the backbone of the SDF, is the Syrian offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) – an armed group struggling for the increased rights of Kurds in Turkey and considered a terrorist organization by Ankara.
A human rights watchdog from Rojava’s Jazira region stated that the attacks are continuing and intensifying as a result of the silence and lack of action on behalf of the international community and rights groups. Human Rights Organization Jazeera, a rights group which calls itself independent and claims to have no political affiliation, also called for international recognition of Turkish occupation of Syrian land, and for the country to be held accountable.
"The hostile acts committed by Turkey and its transgression of Syrian land is a clear occupation, which must be recognized internationally and hold it accountable for all the war crimes it committed against the safe Syrian civilians inside their lands," Hawar News Agency (ANHA), a media outlet affiliated with Kurdish authorities in Rojava, cited Aveen Jumaa, head of the rights watchdog as saying.
The outlet also reported that nine children have been killed and 24 others wounded in suspected Turkish attacks on the districts of Ain Issa, Zirgan, and Tel Tamer in 2022, also reporting 21 women killed and wounded.
Jumaa added that international committees and rights groups condemn the violations committed in the area, but do not explicitly condemn the Turkish state “despite their actual participation in them.”
Gire Spi (Tal Abyad) and the neighboring Sari Kani (Ras al-Ain) were controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), until Turkey and its Syrian proxies invaded in October 2019. Both towns were Kurdish-majority, but most people of the ethnicity have fled to other areas under the control of the SDF.
Sari Kani and Gire Spi now lie at opposite ends of a resulting ‘buffer zone’ under the control of Turkish-backed militias.
A civilian was killed and others were injured in suspected Turkish bombardment targeting a several villages of Gire Spi town in northern Syria on Sunday.
Four shells, allegedly by Turkish forces, hit the city of Kobane on Friday, wounding at least two civilians.
