DHAKA: A Turkish air raid killed as many as 200 Kurdish militia members at north of the Syrian city of Aleppo on the wee hour of Thursday (October 20).

Turkish military says they hit 18 targets with 26 airstrikes in the areas under the control of Kurdish militia, destroying their headquarters, ammunition dumps and shelters, reports CNN.

The statement said one Free Syrian Army fighter died and another one was injured in a series of clashes with the PYD/PKK.

The PYD is a Kurdish opposition party with links to the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK an entity Turkey has long designated a terror group and has been fighting for years.

In recent months, much of Turkey’s firepower has been directed at the Kurdish separatist PKK in southeastern Turkey and across the border in northern Iraq.

It has also occasionally shelled ISIS positions in northern Syria, but its last-known airstrikes against ISIS were in November last year.

The Turkish leadership has strongly expressed a desire to be part of the Iraqi-led coalition to oust ISIS from the northern Iraqi town of Mosul, just across the Syrian border, but Iraq’s government has so far rejected the overtures.

BDST: 1537 HRS, OCT 20, 2016
NJ/BD