A military base in Syria’s northeastern province of Hasakah, where US occupation troops and their allied Kurdish-led militants affiliated with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are stationed, has come under attack by an armed unmanned aerial vehicle operated by the Turkish military.
Faraan: “A joint base north of Hasakah used for planning and executing joint operations against the Daesh terrorist group has been hit by a Turkish drone,” a spokesman for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, Farhad Shami, told AFP news agency on Tuesday. He added that two SDF fighters were killed in the aerial attack.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed that the joint base had come under attack, but did not immediately report whether American occupation forces had been present at the time. The development comes two days after Turkish military planes hit targets in northern Syria and Iraq, bombing bases Turkey’s Defense Ministry claimed were used by those behind an explosion in central Istanbul last weekend that killed six people and wounded more than 80 others.
“The hour of reckoning has come,” the Turkish ministry tweeted early on Sunday, along with a photo of a military plane taking off on a night-time operation. It added that those who had perpetrated the “treacherous attacks” would be held accountable. The ministry cited Turkey’s right to self-defense under Article 51 of the United Nations Charter in launching an operation it called Claw-Sword. It said it was targeting areas “used as a base by terrorists in their attacks on our country.”
Turkey keeps up its illegal airstrikes against northern Syria, killing Syrian servicemen and civilians. Ankara has blamed the November 13 bomb attack at a bustling avenue in the heart of Istanbul on the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militant group and its Syrian affiliate of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) militant group, which is the backbone of the SDF. Kurdish forces have denied involvement.
