Turkish soldiers stand guard as Syrian refugees living in Turkey enter Syria through the Cilvegozu crossborder gate in Reyhanli district, Hatay, on Sunday. AFP
A Turkish drone strike in a Kurdish-held area in northern Syria resulted in the death of 11 civilians, including six children, according to a war monitor on Monday. This attack occurred just a day after rebels successfully ousted President Bashar al-Assad in a swift offensive, regaining control over vast territories from the government.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that 'Eleven civilians, including six children, all members of the same family, were killed in a Turkish drone strike targeting a house' near Ain Issa, north of the city of Raqa, in a Kurdish-held area. Turkish forces and their proxies have been controlling territory in northern Syria since 2016 when they began targeting Kurdish fighters linked to a group waging a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state.
On Sunday, the Britain-based Observatory, which has a network of sources inside Syria, stated that at least 26 combatants were killed as Turkey-backed Syrian fighters launched an offensive on the northern Manbij area, west of Ain Issa. 'Pro-Turkish factions... seized large districts of Manbij city in the eastern Aleppo countryside, after violent clashes with the Manbij Military Council,' the Observatory had said.
The council is affiliated with the US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the de facto army of the semi-autonomous Kurdish administration that controls much of Syria's northeast. The Turkey-backed fighters announced they had 'taken control of the city of Manbij... after fierce battles', in a statement on their Telegram channel. Turkey expressed on Sunday its intention to help 'guarantee security' in Syria following the fall of Assad, and pledged to work to prevent Kurdish forces from expanding their influence in Syria.
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