File image.
On April 1, a man was killed and another was wounded when a Turkish drone strike hit a vehicle in the northeastern countryside of Syria’s al-Hasakah.
The vehicle, a Hyundai H1 van, was passing on the M4 highway, near the town of Tell Barham when it was targeted by a Turkish combat drone. Footage released by the Hawar News Agency shows the vehicle completely destroyed.
The man wounded in the Turkish drone strike was identified as Kurdish poet Ferhad Merde. Kurdish sources said that the prominent poet was the main target of the strike. However, opposition sources said that the target was a senior commander of the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces. It’s unclear if he was the man killed in the strike.
Following the deadly drone strike, Turkish forces shelled positions of the SDF in the outskirts of the town of Ain Issa in the northern countryside of Raqqa. No casualties or material losses were reported as a result of the shelling.
Turkish combat drones has been very active over SDF-held areas in northern and northeastern Syria for several months now.
In February, several Turkish drone strikes targeted SDF-held areas. On the 24th of the month, a drone strike hit a van on a road linking the towns of al-Qamishli and Amuda in the northern al-Hasakah countryside. The strike wounded four civilians.
The SDF refrained from responding to previous Turkish drone strikes in what appears to be an attempt to prevent any further military escalation in northern and northeastern Syria.
