Click to see full-size image. Via Twitter.
On May 12, the Turkish Ministry of National Defense announced that the four soldiers and a civilian were wounded on Turkish territory as a result of a mortar attack that originated from the town of Kobane in the northeastern countryside of Syria’s Aleppo.
In a statement, the ministry said that the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) were behind the mortar attack which targeted the Köprübaşı Border Patrol Post in the southern Turkish province of Gaziantep.
Kobane is a stronghold of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The YPG is the core of the SDF. The PKK also maintains a strong influence within the Kurdish-led coalition.
Prior to the mortar attack, a series of rocket strikes targeted two bases of the Turkish military located near the Syrian towns of al-Bab and Marea in the northern countryside of Aleppo. The headquarters of the al-Bab Local Council was also hit.
The rockets were reportedly launched from a strip of land in the northern Aleppo countryside jointly held by the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and the SDF.
The Turkish military and its proxies responded to the attacks on Köprübaşı, al-Bab and Marea by shelling several towns and villages jointly held by the SAA and the SDF in the northern and northeastern countryside of Aleppo. Two civilians, a woman and a child, were reportedly wounded as a result of the Turkish shelling.
The attacks on Köprübaşı, al-Bab and Marea were likely carried out in response to recent Turkish attacks on the SAA and the SDF.
On May 7, Turkish artillery strikes targeted a position of the SAA near the town of al-Zijara in the northern Aleppo countryside, killing two soldiers and wounding two others. On May 11, a Turkish member of the SDF was killed when two Turkish drone strikes hit the town of Kobane in the northeastern Aleppo countryside.
Turkey’s attempts to escalate against the SAA and the SDF in northern and northeastern Syria have backfired. Despite this, Ankara will likely continue to attack the two regions.
