Turkey Continues its Drone War in Northern Syria

Friday, 5 August, 2022

A Tal Tamr Military Council member of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) was killed by a Turkish drone strike in Tal Jumaa on Thursday.

The areas east of the Euphrates witnessed an increase in Turkish drone attacks, which killed leaders and prominent fighters of the People’s Defense Units.

The new development comes after the Tehran summit between the presidents of Russia, Vladimir Putin, Iran’s Ebrahim Raisi, and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Observers believe that Turkey is following a new strategy to weaken the SDF after failing to secure international support that would allow it to carry out a military operation in northern Syria.

They considered that the Turkish escalation came after the Tehran summit, where Turkey may have obtained a green light from Russia and Iran to weaken the SDF by targeting its leaders instead of launching the military operation aimed at establishing safe areas 30 kilometers inside Syrian territory south of the Turkish border.

On July 24, Turkey announced the killing of the commander of military operations in Ain al-Arab, and a week later, the intelligence announced the death of Arhan Arman, a member of the Executive Council in Ain al-Arab.

Meanwhile, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said the Turkish armed drones killed at least ten SDF fighters, including prominent leaders.

The Observatory recounted 43 Turkish drone attacks in the areas under the control of the Autonomous Administration of North and Northeastern Syria.

Since the beginning of the year, 35 soldiers and one civilian were killed and 80 others injured.

The Turkish forces and the Syrian National Army (SNA) factions bombed the SDF locations in al-Hasakah, where several artillery shells fell on Tawila village in Tal Tamr.

The Turkish Ministry of Defense said in a statement Thursday that it eliminated two SDF members who were preparing to launch an attack on the Spring of Peace area, which is controlled by Ankara and its loyal factions in northeastern Syria.

The statement said that the Turkish army continues its pre-emptive operations against terrorists in northern Syria.

Syrian regime forces directly targeted a vehicle of the Turkish troops on the Efes axis in the eastern countryside of Idlib. They shelled the vicinity of Maklabis village in the western countryside of Aleppo, coinciding with the flyover of a Russian warplane in the de-escalation zone in northwestern Syria.

Source: Asharq al-Awsat.

Link: https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3799211/turkey-continues-its-drone-war-northern-syria.