Turkey continues to crack down on Kurdish positions in its neighboring countries. Now the Turkish military is also targeting oil fields in north-eastern Syria. According to the SDF, dozens of people were killed.
The Turkish air force attacked the oil production facilities of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the north-east of the neighboring country on Thursday night. This was announced by three people familiar with the processes in the affected region. Accordingly, targets near the city of Kamshli and in the oil-rich Rumeilan area were bombed with drones. According to the SDF, dozens of people were killed, including eleven of their militiamen. It is the first time that Turkey has systematically attacked oil fields under the control of the SDF.
According to his ministry, Turkish Defense Minister Hukusi Akar said after a phone call with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu that his country wanted to permanently prevent terrorist threats from northern Syria. On Wednesday, Russia asked Turkey to abandon the announced ground offensive against the SDF.
The United States warned on Thursday night that US soldiers would also be endangered by the air strikes in northern Syria. Defense Department spokesman Pat Ryder in Washington said immediate de-escalation was necessary to maintain the fight against the Islamic State (IS) extremist group and to maintain American security. The US has around 900 troops deployed in Syria, mostly in the northeast. They work there with the SDF in the fight against IS.
Turkey justifies its military action in retaliation for the bomb attack in downtown Istanbul. According to its own statements, the Turkish air force had already bombed bases of the SDF and the banned Kurdish Workers' Party PKK in Syria and Iraq at the weekend. Both the PKK and the SDF have declared that they had nothing to do with the Istanbul bombing.
