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Syria
Turkish tanks and troops gather near Hassa, Hatay province days before the invasion of Afrin, Syria, January 2018. File photo: AFP
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Turkish shelling on the northern Aleppo town of Tel Rifaat on Wednesday killed a 7-year-old boy and injured another child, according to a war monitor and Syrian media reports.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said Wednesday the boy died after “artillery shelling by Turkish forces stationed in areas controlled by its loyal factions on Tel Rifaat”.
Tel Rifaat is one of the few areas in the area still controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). With the loss of the Kurdish enclave of Afrin in a March 2018 Turkish offensive, Kurdish forces and civilians fled to Tel Rifaat, which hosts a large displacement camp.
North Press Agency, a media outlet affiliated with the Kurdish-led authorities of northern and eastern Syria, confirmed the news, naming the 7-year-old Nadir Ahmed Aboud.
Ahmed Hajj Issa, 9, was also injured, it said.
Hawar News, another outlet affiliated with the Kurdish-led authority, said Aboud was 5 years old and Issa 8.
Due to the proximity of Tel Rifaat to areas under the control of Turkish-backed Syrian proxies, there are frequent exchanges of fire.
On December 2, 2019, shelling by Turkey and its Syrian proxies killed at least eight children and one elderly man.
Wednesday’s fatality brings the child death toll in Tel Rifaat since December to nine.
The Turkish defense ministry has yet to comment on the incident.
Turkey launched Operation Olive Branch in January 2018 with the stated aim of forcing the SDF and its affiliated People’s Protection Units (YPG) back from its southern border.
Ankara considers the YPG a terrorist organization affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), an armed group which has fought a decades-long war with the Turkish state for greater Kurdish political and cultural rights in Turkey.
Olive Branch was followed by Operation Peace Spring, which began October 9, 2019.
The United States effectively greenlighted the Turkish operation when President Donald Trump announced the withdrawal of US troops from the Syria-Turkey border, where they had been assisting the SDF’s fight against the Islamic State group (ISIS).
Syrian regime forces and Russian military police stepped in the secure the border. The SDF agreed to withdraw 32 kilometers from the Turkish border. Despite two ceasefire deals brokered by Washington and Moscow, skirmishes in the region continue.
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