Days after increased bombardments along the northern border of Syria and Turkey reportedly killed at least 21 civilians, including children, the US State Department spokesman said on Monday that Washington is deeply concerned about a recent flare-up of violence in the area.
Expressing deplore for the civilian casualties in al-Bab, Hasakah, and elsewhere, State Department’s spokesman Ned Price said that the US urges all parties to maintain ceasefire lines, reiterating that Washington remains committed to ensuring a political resolution to the Syrian conflict and the enduring defeat of ISIS.
After initial reports on Friday from the Syrian civil defense, known as the White Helmets, that nine civilians were killed as missiles hit a crowded market in the northern Syrian city of al-Bab, the New Arab’s affiliate Syria TV cited medical sources reporting that 17 civilians- including six children- have been killed and 35 injured.
Al-Bab is under the control of Syrian factions loyal to Ankara, which considers Syrian Kurdish groups to be PKK’s front organizations. PKK has led an armed insurgency against Turkey in Kurdish-majority areas of the country since the 1980s.
The city was allegedly targeted by the Assad regime forces from sites they’re jointly controlling with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the shelling of Al-Bab came in retaliation for Turkish strikes.
Tensions across northern Syria have increased as dozens of regime’s and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters were killed as Turkey and its allied Syrian forces continued shelling Kurdish-held areas causing bloodshed.
A pre-dawn strike by a Turkish drone on Friday hit a training center for young girls in the Shmouka area – near Hasakeh in the northeast – killing four children and wounding 11. The toll was confirmed by the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor with a broad network of sources on the ground.
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