Turkey has carried out multiple airstrikes against the town of Ash Shaddadi in northeast Syria Wednesday. According to the Kurdish SDF, at least 16 airstrikes hit the town, targeting an SDF military post, vehicles and civilian homes.
At least 12 people have reportedly been killed in these attacks, including four SDF fighters, six local civilian workers, and two shepherds. The US has a base within Ash Shaddadi as well, though there is no indication that the explosions were particularly near that base.
Located in the southern part of al-Hasakah Governorate, Ash Shaddadi was one of the first towns the SDF took over from ISIS back in early 2016. The area around the town and the nearby Deir Ezzor Governorate are considered particularly valuable because of their proximity to some of the largest oil fields in the region.
Turkey has been attacking the SDF off and on for years, and in recent months has been backing the SNA forces in trying to take their territory, though that’s much further west in Aleppo Governorate than this latest string of strikes.
Turkey has demanded that the new Syrian government eliminate the SDF and end Kurdish autonomy. The SDF recently agreed to integrate into the Syrian military, though exact details of that process are still being worked out.
The exclusion of the Kurds from the Syrian National Dialogue Conference has also caused no small amount of disquiet about their role in the future of Syria. The new Syrian government is keen to remain on the good side of Turkey, so it may well be that the Kurds’ exclusion was meant to avoid angering Turkey, which has historically been quite hostile to even the appearance of the Kurds having a voice in the region.
Though not necessarily directly related to the ongoing military operations in northern Syria, Turkey has also been pushing Twitter/X to crack down on and ban Kurdish journalists on “national security” grounds. In the months since the newest push against the Syrian Kurds began, dozens of journalists have been banned in this manner, a number of them Kurdish or seen as sympathetic to the Kurdish position.
