SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Three civilians were killed in a Turkish shelling on Tall Rifat town in northwestern Syria on Saturday, according to media reports in the region.
Firat News Agency reported that the Turkish military had shelled the region, 40 kilometers north of Aleppo, on Saturday.
The news agency said three civilians were killed in the attack, including two children and a woman, and six others were wounded.
Meanwhile, Rojava Information Center said in a tweet that four civilians were killed and 11 others including children were injured.
The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria condemned what it called a “massacre” in Tall Rifat.
“We … strongly condemn such irresponsible attacks and the genocide system and targeting of civilians by the fascist Turkish State that encroaches all international norms and conventions of relevance in Syria,” the administration said in a statement.
“Such barbaric attacks aggravate the situation in Syria and undoubtedly pushes the region into anarchy,” it added.
The Turkish military and its Syrian rebel allies captured control of Afrin, a mainly Kurdish region, from the YPG in March 2018 in one of a series of Turkish incursions into northern Syria.
Turkey considers the YPG as a “terrorist group” tied to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has fought an insurgency in southeast Turkey since 1984.
Turkey intermittently shells positions held by the People’s Protection Units (YPG) in the Tall Rifat region, saying it is in response to YPG attacks.
The region is controlled by Kurdish-led forces and is located some 20 km (13 miles) east of Afrin, which has been under the control of Turkey and its Free Syrian Army allies since an operation last year to drive out the YPG.
Turkey, a major backer of rebel groups fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, has conducted patrols with Russia, one of Assad’s main allies, in northern areas under agreements reached last year.
