Turkish attacks kill three people from same family in Ain Issa

The Turkish army and its jihadist mercenaries have intensified their attacks on the autonomous region of Northern and Eastern Syria. After fierce attacks, Turkish forces committed a massacre in Ain Issa.

Three people from the same family were killed in the attack on the village of Al-Shirka on the eastern outskirts of Ain Issa. The victims were a 60-year-old man and his grandchildren, aged 3 and 10. The children’s mother was seriously injured, as were two of her children, aged 12 and five. They have been taken to a hospital in Raqqa where they underwent emergency surgery. The hospital has not yet released any information on their condition.

Ain Issa has been one of the most frequently attacked targets by the Turkish army and its Islamist proxies for years. Located south of the Turkish occupation zone around Gire Spi, the town is strategically important as a link between the self-governing regions of Kobane and Cizire, as it lies on the important M4 highway, which runs like a lifeline through northern Syria and was a strategic supply route for ISIS. Ain Issa has been targeted by invasive forces since 2019.

The bombing of Ain Issa has mainly targeted civilian settlements. Dozens of villages in the region have already been destroyed and depopulated by the Turkish state’s attacks. The positions of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have also come under fire. A Turkish air offensive last November also destroyed large parts of the infrastructure.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) issued a statement condemning the killing of civilians by the Turkish army in the village of al-Shirka on Tuesday. In the statement, the SDF said that a new massacre and another war crime had been committed by the Turkish army, costing the lives of children, elderly and women of a family in the safe village of al-Shirka, which is covered by the ceasefire agreement. The SDF concludes the statement by calling for swift intervention by the guarantors of the agreement, the international community and human rights organizations to curb the occupation’s reprehensible conduct and end its war crimes.