Beirut
Seven civilians were killed Friday by Turkish air strikes and sniper fire in northeastern Syria, a war monitor said. “Four of them were killed when an air strike hit their car while fleeing” in Tal Abyad, Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said.
The other three were killed by snipers around the border town, which has been one of the main targets of the assault Turkey and its proxies launched on Kurdish-controlled areas in Syria on Wednesday.
Turkey said on Friday that one of its soldiers was killed in northern Syria, the first such fatality in its offensive against the Kurdish militia.Three more soldiers were injured in the “operation region”, the defence ministry said in a statement after clashes with the militia on Thursday. It gave no further details. According to the UK-based monitor, a total of 17 civilians have been killed since the start of the assault, which has also left 41 fighters from the Kurdish forces dead.
“The Syrian Democratic Forces are using tunnels, trenches and berms” in their defence operations, the Observatory said. According to the Observatory, 41 SDF fighters have also been killed.
Kurdish counter-attacks overnight led to the retaking of two of the 11 villages they had lost since the start of the Turkish-led assault on Wednesday.
The European Union governments threatened sanctions against Turkey on Friday over its offensive in Syria, angrily rejecting President Tayyip Erdogan’s warning that he would “open the gates” and send 3.6 million refugees to Europe if they did not back him.
The European Union, which Turkey still formally aspires to join despite its growing criticism of Ankara’s human rights record, had already condemned the Turkish offensive but has been infuriated by Erdogan’s threats to send refugees to Europe.— AFP/Reuters
