Syria: Kurdish forces accuse Turkey of bombing Al-Hol camp
Among the inhabitants of the Al-Hol camp are more than 10,000 foreigners from around 60 countries.
AP - Baderkhan Ahmad
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
As Ankara continues its military operation against the Kurdish forces in Syria, the latter accused the Turkish air force on Wednesday of having targeted the security forces protecting the Al-Hol camp, which houses 50,000 relatives of jihadists. of the Islamic State group.
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According to a spokesman for the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF, dominated by Kurdish fighters), the Turkish air force carried out five strikes against Kurdish security forces inside the Al-Hol camp.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH), which has an extensive network of sources in the country, for its part reported that the strikes had targeted positions of Kurdish forces outside the camp, “
wreaking havoc
” in this huge set of white plastic tents.
Some prisoners therefore took advantage of these bombardments to flee, reports our correspondent in Erbil,
Théo Renaudon
.
A search operation in the area was underway Wednesday evening.
Under Kurdish administration, the dilapidated and overcrowded Al-Hol camp has been home to more than 50,000 relatives of jihadists from the Islamic State (IS) group since the group's defeat, as well as displaced Syrians and Iraqi refugees.
Half of its occupants are under twelve years old.
Among the inhabitants of the camp are more than 10,000 foreigners from around 60 countries, including French and other Europeans.
Despite repeated exhortations from the semi-autonomous Kurdish administration, most Western countries refuse to repatriate their citizens, contenting themselves with repatriations in dribs and drabs for fear of possible terrorist acts on their soil.
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To read also: Syria: explosive situation in the Al-Hol camp
These strikes took place as Turkey continued on Wednesday
the Sword Claw operation launched on Sunday
against positions of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the People's Protection Units (YPG).
The Turkish government accuses these two movements – which have denied – of having ordered the attack which killed six people and injured 81 on November 13 in Istanbul.
"
Turkey has the means to seek out and punish the terrorists involved in attacks against (it) inside and outside its borders
," President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told his party's group. AKP in the Assembly.
Until then, he warned, "n
We will continue our air operations without interruption and we will enter the territory of the terrorists at the time that seems opportune to us
”.
The Head of State specified his priority objectives, citing the Syrian localities of Tal Rifaat, Manbij and Ayn al-Arab (Kobane in Kurdish), with a view to establishing a security zone 30 kilometers wide south of his border .
(
And with
AFP)
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