Turkish strikes target Kurdish forces

QAMISHLI, Syria: Turkish strikes on Wednesday targeted Kurdish forces controlling northern Syria´s Al-Hol detention camp, home to over 50,000 people including relatives of suspected jihadists, Kurdish forces and a war monitor said.

“Turkish planes targeted the (Kurdish) Asayesh security forces with five strikes inside the camp,” said Farhad Shami, a spokesman for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, instead claimed the strikes targeted forces guarding the camp´s exterior, “sparking chaos among (camp) residents”.

Neither source immediately reported casualties. Among Al-Hol´s detainees are more than 10,000 foreigners from dozens of countries. The overcrowded camp is also home to displaced Syrians, and Iraqi refugees.

It is the largest camp for displaced people who fled after Kurdish forces, backed by a US-led coalition, dislodged Islamic State group fighters from the last scraps of their Syrian territory in 2019.