ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Images of heavily bearded men stepping on the corpse of a female Kurdish fighter in northern Syria shocked the world this week – the latest damning evidence of Turkish-backed Syrian militias committing war crimes in Operation Peace Spring.
Among the bodies shown in footage posted on social media was a woman, who the militiamen describe as “one of the whores” of the Kurdish forces.
The woman was today identified as Aziza Jalal (nom de guerre Amara Renas), a member of the Kurdish women’s armed unit (YPJ), which is part of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). She was killed in Jalabiyya village in the countryside near Kobane on October 21, according to SDF-affiliated Hawar news.
Her age was not published.
In the video of the atrocity, the forces identify themselves the “Mujahideen of Faylaq al-Majd” and repeatedly shout “Allah wa Akbar,” meaning God is great.
On October 12, Hevrin Khalaf, a senior politician and a women’s rights activist in northern Syria, was summarily executed and her corpse abused by another group of Turkish-backed forces, the Ahrar al-Sharqiya. The United Nations said her execution could count as a war crime.
Officials from the United States, which withdrew American forces from the Syria-Turkey border allowing Ankara to launch its operation, has also acknowledged the reports and said they could amount to war crimes.
On Wednesday, US special envoy to Syria James Jeffrey told a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing that the Syrian militias had committed “war crimes” and should be held accountable.
US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, in an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour aired Tuesday, admitted Turkish-backed militias may be committing “war crimes” and that the Turkish government should be held responsible.
“I've seen the reports as well. We’re trying to monitor them. They are horrible and, if accurate, I assume that they are accurate, they would be war crimes, as best as I know the law of land warfare. So I think all of those needs to be followed up on. I think those responsible should be held accountable – in many cases it would be the government of Turkey should be held accountable for this because we cannot allow those things to happen,” Esper said.
Turkey launched its land incursion into northern Syria on October 9. At least 300,000 people have been displaced from their homes and scores of civilians killed in the operation. The United States and Russia have struck ceasefire agreements with Turkey that dictate the SDF will withdraw from the border. The SDF was not a party to the talks and on Thursday accused Turkey of violating the truce by launching a large ground attack.
The European Parliament condemned Turkey’s offensive and called for Ankara to pull its forces out of Syria. The lawmakers “warn that Turkey’s intervention in northeast Syria is a grave violation of international law, undermining the stability and security of the region as a whole,” read a statement from the parliament.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan dismissed the criticism in a televised address from Ankara on Thursday, saying Turkey is fighting an international war against terrorism.
Accusing European powers of “attacking” Turkey, he said “we have resisted and will continue resisting”.
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