The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights

Nearly a week after attempt to assassinate Mazloum Abdi | Turkish drone kills SDF commander in Al-Hasakah countryside

Al-Hasakah province: SOHR sources have reported that a commander of Syrian Democratic Forces was killed and his escort was injured in an attack by a Turkish drone in the early hours of Friday morning on the vehicle which they were travelling near Nusaybeen crossing on the border with Turkey in Al-Qamishli city in Al-Hasakah province. The injured man was taken to the hospital.

 

This comes a week after the leader of Syrian Democratic Forces, Mazloum Abdi, survived an assassination attempt by a Turkish drone in the perimeter of Al-Suleimaniyah airport in Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

 

It is worth noting that this is the first attack of its kind since February 22 when a Turkish drone targeted a civil car on the road between Al-Qamishli and Al-Qahtaniyah in the north-east of Al-Hasakah. The attack then left a civilian dead and a commander of the Internal Security Forces (Asayish) injured.

 

Accordingly, the number of attacks carried out by Turkish drones on areas controlled by the Autonomous Administration in north and north-east Syria since early 2023 has increased to 11. These attacks left 12 fatalities: five civilians, including a child and a woman, six military personnel and a driver, as well as the injury of over five others. Turkish drone attacks in 2023 are distributed regionally as follows:

 

  • Al-Hasakah: Nine attacks left five military personnel, a driver and four civilians including a woman and a child, dead and others injured.

 

  • Al-Raqqah: One attack.

 

  • Aleppo countryside: One attack left an employee of the Autonomous Administration and an SDF fighter dead.