BEIRUT, Lebanon, Oct 25, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - A Syria war monitor said Friday
that Turkish drone strikes had killed 27 civilians in Syria in a 24-hour
military escalation, following a deadly attack on a defence company near
Ankara.

Turkish forces had "dramatically escalated their aerial and ground attacks in
north and east Syria" since Thursday, said the Syrian Observatory for Human
Rights.

The monitor added that it documented 45 drone strikes and four by fighter
jets targeting infrastructure, including water, power and gas stations.

Turkey launched air strikes on Kurdish militants in Iraq and Syria on
Wednesday, blaming them for an attack that claimed five lives at a defence
firm near the Turkish capital.

A further 22 people were wounded in the attack, which the government said was
"very likely" carried out by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Hours later, "an air operation was carried out against terrorist targets in
the north of Iraq and Syria," the defence ministry said in a statement.

"A total of 32 targets belonging to the terrorists were successfully
destroyed."

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said in a statement Thursday that
Turkish air strikes killed 12 civilians in northeastern Syria and wounded 25
others.

"In addition to populated areas, Turkish warplanes and UAVs (drones) targeted
bakeries, power stations, oil facilities and (Kurdish) Internal Security
Force checkpoints," the SDF added, also reporting Turkish shelling.

The US-backed SDF spearheaded the campaign that dislodged Islamic State group
jihadists from their last scraps of Syrian territory in 2019.

Turkey sees the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), which dominate the
SDF, as an offshoot of the PKK.

Turkish troops and allied rebel factions control swaths of northern Syria
following successive cross-border offensives since 2016, most of them
targeting the SDF.