This picture offered by the Syrian Civil Protection White Helmets, which has been authenticated primarily based on its contents and different AP reporting, reveals a Syrian White Helmet civil defence employee, extinguishes flames rising from a burning automobile, within the city of Afrin, north of Aleppo, Thursday, Jan. 20, 2022. (Syrian Civil Protection White Helmets by way of AP)
BEIRUT --
A rocket assault on a northern Syrian city managed by Turkey-backed opposition fighters killed six civilians and wounded over a dozen folks on Thursday, Syrian rescuers and a conflict monitor stated. Each blamed U.S-backed Syrian Kurdish forces for the assault.
The city of Afrin has been below management of Turkey and its allied Syrian opposition fighters since 2018, following a Turkey-backed navy operation that pushed Syrian Kurdish fighters and hundreds of Kurdish residents from the realm.
Since then, Afrin and surrounding villages have been the location of assaults on Turkish and Turkey-backed targets. Ankara considers Kurdish fighters who management a swath of Syrian territory alongside Turkey's border to be terrorists, allied with Kurdish insurgents inside Turkey.
Turkey has carried out three navy offensives into Syria, principally to drive the Syrian Kurdish militia away from its border.
The White Helmets, a Syrian civil protection group working in opposition-held areas, stated the rockets additionally brought on a hearth in a residential space of Afrin which its volunteers put out. In a White Helmet video, rescuers are seen pulling a burned, lifeless physique from a broken constructing as others are placing out a raging hearth that additionally left a few autos charred.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war-monitoring group, additionally put the demise toll at six, saying two kids had been among the many killed and 30 folks had been wounded.
Syrian Kurdish fighters had been allied with the U.S.-led coalition within the combat towards Islamic State militants who captured a 3rd of Iraq and Syria in 2014. IS was defeated and Kurdish forces have since created an autonomous administration in northeastern Syria, the place a small U.S. drive remains to be primarily based.
Additionally Thursday, the Kurdish-led forces reported an tried escape from a jail in northeastern Syria that holds IS militants. In accordance with the report, militants first began to riot inside Gerwan Jail within the metropolis of Hassakeh, which homes about 3,000 prisoners.
This was adopted by a automobile bomb, which was detonated in a facility for storing and distributing petroleum merchandise near the jail. Clashes ensued with safety forces within the space.
In accordance with a press release by the united statesled coalition, coalition plane offered assist for the Kurdish-led forces, referred to as the Syrian Democratic Forces, which sustained casualties throughout the assault.
“Coalition aerial property shortly started supporting operations to stabilize the state of affairs via a coordinated strike towards the hostile forces,” the assertion stated, with out offering additional particulars.
An SDF spokesman, Farhad Shami, stated it was not instantly potential to substantiate if anybody escaped from the jail. He stated tens of IS militants who tried to assault the jail had been hiding in neighborhoods close to the jail. An SDF assertion stated the militants had been believed hiding in residential properties and a safety cordon was imposed on the realm. It stated the riots within the jail had been below management.
Kurdish authorities run greater than two dozen detention amenities, scattered round northeastern Syria, holding about 10,000 IS fighters. Among the many detainees are some 2,000 foreigners. The Kurdish-led forces, backed by the united statesled coalition, declared a navy victory towards IS in 2019 after seizing management of the final sliver of land the militants managed in southeast Syria.
Since, the Kurdish authorities have requested international locations to repatriate their nationals, saying maintaining hundreds in crammed amenities is placing a pressure on their forces. Jail riots should not unusual.
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