The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) issued a written statement regarding the ground and air attacks by the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) on the areas under its control.
Following the 12 casualties in clashes with the PKK on the territory of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Iraq, TSK initiated ground and air attacks on Rojava on December 23.
According to Hawar News Agency (ANHA) based in Rojava, the TSK conducted 40 attacks on the region using seven fighter jets and 33 drones. The details provided by the agency include bombings in various locations:
In Cirnik neighborhood, Kamishli: Sadkob station, a food warehouse, a factory in El-Alaya neighborhood, two construction companies, Simav printing house, Korona Hospital, power station, feed warehouse, dialysis hospital, and an oxygen factory were bombed.
Near the Martyrs Junction: Ceramic warehouse, gas station, Aziz garage, cement warehouse, Um Fursan village, fuel depot in El-Alaya neighborhood, market place in El-Alaya neighborhood, warehouse near Korona Hospital, Berfin cleaning products factory, and Botan gas station were targeted in 31 attacks.
In Amuda district: Kerem wedding hall, wheat warehouse, and olive warehouse were hit in three attacks.
In Kobane: Car garage, Médecins Sans Frontières-supported Miştenur Hospital, chicken factory on the road to Termik village, farm, car repair shop, and a construction company owned by Ahmed Temer were targeted in six attacks.
More than 2600 villages and towns left without electricity
The Autonomous Administration stated that as a result of targeting power plants in the city of Kamishli and its rural areas, more than 2,600 villages and towns were plunged into darkness. They also reported that radio stations in Kamishli, Dêrik, and Dirbesiyê were bombed.
Simultaneously with the airstrikes, the Turkey-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) targeted the village of Dendeniye, northwest of Manbij, from the military base in Sheikh Nasser using heavy weapons and mortar shells.
Euronews: The Kurdish administration urged UN to intervene
Some of the strikes hit oil industry sites, health facilities and vital infrastructure in northeast Syria, reducing electricity production by 50% on Saturday, according to the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria, a Kurdish-led authority in northeast Syria that Turkey claims is affiliated with the PKK but which is a key ally of the United States.
The Kurdish administration in its statement urged the United Nations to intervene, warning that the Turkish attacks could threaten the region’s security. It said that one of the strikes had hit a site near the Alaya prison in Qamishli, which houses IS members.
Iraqi Kurdish Autonomous Adminstration punished
Turkey has decided to extend the ban on flights through Turkish airspace to and from Sulaimaniyah International Airport in Iraqi Kurdistan for an additional six months, the director of the airport told The New Arab.
Turkey’s foreign ministry had announced in April that it was suspending access to its airspace for flights to and from the airport until 3 January 2024, citing security concerns over the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militant group.
“Since Saturday, Turkey has extended the suspension for another six months, effective until 22 June 2024,” Handren Mufti, the director of Sulaimani International Airport told The New Arab in a phone call.
“The reason is that Turkey refuses to open flights to and from the airport, and Ankara also disagrees with opening its airspace to all flights from the airport.”
Mufti declined to directly talk about the issue of the PKK, but he said that the airport is “very safe for flights” and that “no security breaches had happened in the airport”.
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