BEIRUT (Dispatches) – A Turkish drone strike Tuesday killed at least four people in a northeast Syrian city held by Kurdish forces, the latest in a flurry of attacks, a war monitor said.
The Britain-based so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the attack struck near a hospital in Qamishli, the de facto capital of a semi-autonomous Kurdish administration that runs large parts of the country’s northeast.
The four victims, all affiliated with the administration, were killed while they dug trenches near Turkey’s border in anticipation of a new offensive that Ankara has threatened to launch since May, the monitor said.
Ankara has launched successive military offensives in Syria. Most have targeted Kurdish militants that Ankara links to a group waging a decades-long insurgency against it.
Turkey has stepped up its drone strikes in Kurdish-controlled areas of Syria, according to Kurdish officials and the Observatory.
A Turkish drone strike on Qamishli at the weekend killed four people, including two siblings, said the Observatory.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has underlined his determination to carry on with his plan for a new cross-border offensive in Syria to remove members of the U.S.-backed Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) militant group from border areas.
“We will continue our fight against terrorism. Our decision to establish a 30-kilometer-deep (18.6-mile) secure line along our southern border is final,” Erdogan said in an address to Turkish diplomats attending the 13th Ambassadors Conference in the capital Ankara on Monday.
He went on to say that he hoped Turkey would soon eliminate the remaining pockets of the militant group in Syria.
Last month, Erdogan hinted that a new Turkish operation against the YPG militants will remain on the agenda until security concerns are addressed.
Turkey has deployed forces in Syria in violation of the Arab country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and other senior officials have said Damascus will respond through all legitimate means available to Turkey’s ongoing ground offensive.