Monitors from the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights say Turkish air strikes Sunday have killed at least 35 civilians in northern Syria.
The watchdog says 20 people were killed in the village of Jub-al-Kousa. Fifty people were wounded in the attack in an area controlled by militia allied to the Kurdish-backed Syrian Democratic Forces.
The Observatory says another air strike killed 15 civilians and wounded 20 others near the town of al-Armana.
Use of barrel bombs
Elsewhere, the Observatory says Syrian government helicopters dropped two explosive-packed barrel bombs on a funeral Saturday just minutes apart in the Maadi district of eastern Aleppo, killing at least 23 people.
The first bomb landed near a tent where people were mourning the victims of a barrel bomb attack earlier in the week. The second bomb landed as emergency workers arrived.
Barrel Bomb Attack in Aleppo, Syria
The attack Thursday in a neighboring district of the once-vibrant city killed 15 people, including 11 children.
The Syrian government routinely denies using barrel bombs. But analysts point out that Damascus and Moscow command the only forces operating helicopters over Aleppo.
Call for cease-fire
Staffan de Mistura, the U.N. special envoy for Syria, has called for a 48-hour truce in Aleppo. He said the world body has in place an emergency response plan to provide humanitarian relief to the besieged city, once a temporary cease-fire is in place.
In a statement, de Mistura said Russia has confirmed it will honor the proposed U.N. emergency response plan and is seeking the cooperation of the government of President Bashar al-Assad, Moscow’s long-standing ally.
The U.N. plan is aimed at providing emergency aid to tens of thousands of people trapped in Aleppo and to restore electricity to the city that was once home to 2.3 million residents.
Elsewhere, Syrian rebels and their families continue evacuating the long-besieged Damascus suburb of Daraya as part of an agreement reached late Thursday with the government after four years of airstrikes and a siege that left the suburb in ruins.
Rebels and their families arrive from the Damascus suburb of Daraya following a forced evacuation deal struck with the Syrian government that ends a grueling bombing campaign and four-year siege, in Babiska, Idlib province, Aug. 27, 2016.
Turkey vs. Kurds
Turkish-backed fighters skirmished Saturday with Kurdish forces in northern Syria, pushing the two U.S. allies in the war against Islamic State extremists closer to an all-out confrontation.
Turkey’s Anadolu news agency says one Turkish soldier was killed and three others wounded in a rocket attack by a Kurdish militia the Ankara government identifies as terrorists.
For its part, the Kurd-dominated U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said its fighters were hit by Turkish jets south of the border town of Jarabulus, which was stormed by Turkish forces Wednesday but is now reported in the control of the SDF. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
Turkish troops head to the Syrian border, in Karkamis, Turkey, Aug. 27, 2016.
The clashes bolster Western concerns that Turkey’s military incursion into Syrian territory aims to target both Islamic State jihadists and the Kurdish military grouping known as the Kurdish People’s Protection Units, the YPG militia.
U.S. officials have described the YPG as one of its most effective allies in the fight against Islamic State, while Turkey is demanding a YPG retreat from all border territory seized from IS jihadists.
Some material for this report came from AFP and Reuters.
– VOA
