Smoke following the explosion of a mine by fighters in a field on the outskirts of Saraqeb, Dec. 21, 2024. (Credit: Muhammad Haj Kadour/AFP)
A drone attack on a car in northeastern Syria attributed to the Turkish military has killed three civilians, a media report and Kurdish security forces said on Saturday.
The strike came after two journalists from Turkey's Kurdish-majority southeast were killed, reportedly by a Turkish drone, while covering clashes between an Ankara-backed militia and U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters in Syria.
Since Syria's president Bashar al-Assad was ousted on Dec. 8, Turkey has doubled down on its backing for armed groups that oppose Kurdish forces that control part of the country's north.
"The Turkish occupation targeted a car with a drone strike on a road between al-Hawl and Tal Brak" in Hasakeh province, "killing three civilians," the Hawar Kurdish news agency in Syria reported.
In a statement, the Kurdish Internal Security Force said: "This crime is one of a series of flagrant violations of international law and human rights which forbid the targeting of civilians."
Suppressed for decades, the Kurds took advantage of the weakness of Assad's government during the civil war that erupted in 2011 to proclaim their own autonomous region in the north.
Turkey, which backs those now in power in Syria who toppled Assad, views the Syrian Defense Forces (SDF) as a terror organization because it is dominated by the YPG, a Kurdish group it says is linked to PKK militants who have fought a decades-long insurgency on Turkish soil.
Ankara is hoping Syria's new Islamist HTS rulers will take steps to address the issue of Kurdish fighters in the north.
A Turkish defense ministry source said on Thursday Ankara would push ahead with its military preparations until Kurdish fighters "disarm," stressing the ongoing threat along its border with Syria.
The Turkish army insists it never targets civilians but only terror groups.
The attack that killed the two journalists on Friday came amid mounting concerns over a possible Turkish assault on the Kurdish-held Syrian border town of Kobane, also known as Ain al-Arab.
On Saturday, war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported the deaths of 14 pro-Turkey fighters in "fierce fighting" with the SDF.
