Syria’s Kurdish-led forces blame Turkey for strikes killing nine

Kurdish-led forces that control large swathes of northern Syria said nine people from the same family were killed Sunday night in a bombing it blamed on Turkey.

“A Turkish occupation aircraft bombed a farming family south of Kobani in the late hours of Sunday night,” the Syrian Democratic Forces said in a statement.

In addition to the nine members of the Othman Abdo family killed in the strikes, the SDF said two wounded relatives were taken to hospital. Most of the victims were children, according to graphic photos of the aftermath that the SDF posted to Telegram.

Syria’s new authorities have sought to disband armed groups and establish government control over the entire country since ousting long-time leader Bashar al-Assad in December.

Last week, the Syrian president’s office announced it had reached an agreement with the SDF to integrate the autonomous Kurdish administration in the north and northeast into the national government.

The process is being closely watched by Turkey, which considers one of the main factions in the SDF to be an offshoot of a domestic “terror” group.

According to Turkey, the People’s Protection Units  are linked to Kurdish militants at home who have waged an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984.

Pro-Turkish factions in Syria launched an offensive against the SDF in November, just as the Islamist-led rebels were sweeping through the country on the way to overthrowing Assad.

During Assad’s rule, Syria’s Kurds were marginalised and repressed, including being denied the right to speak their language and celebrate their holidays.

The minority largely stayed out of the devastating 13-year civil war. But the Kurdish-dominated and Western-backed SDF played a key role in the territorial defeat of the Islamic State group in Syria, seizing control of large areas of the north in the process, and bringing them under its de facto administration.

AFP

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