Turkish air strike kills nine members of family in north-east Syria

Attack undermines recent deal to integrate region into country's new HTS-led authorities

Syrian Democratic Forces troops in Hasakah, north-eastern Syria, after the ousting of president Bashar Al Assad, in December. Reuters

A Turkish air strike has killed nine members of one family in an area controlled by the mostly Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces in north-eastern Syria, the US-backed group has said.

The drone attack on a farm in Komaji village on Monday all but wiped out the Abdo family, the SDF said. It undermined last week's agreement between SDF chief Mazlum Abdi and Syria's leader Ahmad Al Shara to end hostilities in the north-east and integrate into the central government.

“Targeting a farmer and his children is a crime against humanity,” Mr Abdi said in a statement. “Our condolences go to the innocent victims who perished in the Turkish strike on a whole family.”

Large swathes of the area, which is inhabited by Arabs and Kurds, have been dominated by the SDF since the group and other Kurdish militants mounted US-backed territory grabs in the past decade while fighting the terrorist group ISIS.

Mr Abdi said the Turkish-backed government led by Mr Shara should prevent “killing of its citizens by other countries”. There was no immediate comment from Ankara. In late January, A Turkish Defence Ministry spokesman said that Turkey will continue "decisive measures" against the PKK and other "terrorist groups" in Syria.

Syria's leader Ahmed Al Shara, right, and SDF commander-in-chief Mazlum Abdi signing an agreement to integrate the SDF into state institutions, in the Damascus on March 10. AFP

Those killed in Monday's attack were the father and mother, six sisters and one son, sources said. The village is in the countryside of Ain Al Arab, which Kurds call Kobani, its original name before a wave of Arabisation that displaced thousands of Kurds in the 1950s.

Mohannad Kattee, a Syrian researcher and fierce critic of the SDF, said that if the deaths were confirmed, “Turkey bears responsibility for this operation, which resulted in civilian victims”.

Mr Kattee said the presence in Syria of Turkish Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) fighters, who are SDF allies, has given Turkey the excuse for its military intervention in Syria since 2016 and for the subsequent attacks.

Dozens of Kurdish civilians have been killed in intensified Turkish strikes in support of an offensive by Syrian militias supported by Ankara to advance in the area. It was launched shortly after the downfall of Bashar Al Assad's regime in December. Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS), the group led by Mr Al Shara, which controls the post-Assad government, has largely stayed away from participating in the offensive. HTS was formerly linked with Al Qaeda, while the SDF is influenced by the Marxist-Leninist ideology of the PKK.

The deal last week with the Syrian presidency is supposed to result in the integration of all civil and military institutions in north-eastern Syria into the state, by the end of the year, including “border crossings, the airport, and oil and gasfields”. The region is the reservoir of Syria's commodities production, as well as gas, oil, and electricity.

Kurdish groups, which later became the SDF, helped the Assad regime crush a peaceful protest movement in 2011, and later capture rebel-held eastern parts of Aleppo city along with other areas. Their remaining ally since the regime was overthrown has been the US. The SDF has been the ground component in the US's fight against ISIS in Syria.

However, US-backed Kurdish territorial acquisitions have contributed to ethnic violence with Arabs, who comprise the overwhelming majority of the population of the country. After Mr Al Assad's fall, several thousand Arab militia deserted the SDF and joined the Turkish-backed offensive on SDF-held areas.

By the end of 2011 the revolt had become an armed struggle and Syria was embroiled in civil war. The country fragmented into Russian, Iranian, Turkish and US zones of influence. Only the US and Turkish zones remain, along with a newly carved Israeli zone near the Golan Heights.