One of the Syrian soldiers wounded in the Turkish shelling. Click to see full-size image. Source: the Hawar News Agency.
On April 27, three soldiers of the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) were reportedly wounded when the Turkish military and its proxies shelled the northern countryside of Syria’s al-Hasakah.
The artillery strikes targeted areas held by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the outskirts of the town of Tell Tamer. A position of the SAA located near the village of Umm al-Kayf was hit. The position is one of many established by the army in the northeastern region in the wake of the Turkish invasion of 2019.
This was the second Turkish attack on the SAA in less than a week. On April 24, a Turkish combat drone targeted an army position near the SDF-held town of Kobane in the northeastern countryside of Aleppo. A battle tank was allegedly destroyed in the strike.
The Turkish drone strike was met with a serious response. Only a few hours after the strike, warplanes of the Russian Aerospace Forces carried out a series of airstrikes on a key position of Turkish-backed militants near the town of Burj Haydar in the northern countryside of Aleppo.
The SAA and its allies will likely respond to the new attack in order to maintain deterrence with the Turkish military and its proxies.
It’s worth noting that the Turkish military and its proxies escalated their attacks on SDF-held areas in northern and northeastern Syria in the last few months. SDF commanders have already warned that Ankara may be preparing to launch a large-scale operation in the two regions.
