A Turkish drone bombed, Tuesday, November 22, in Syria, a joint base of Kurdish forces and the international anti-jihadist coalition, led by the United States, killing two Kurdish fighters, said Kurdish forces and an NGO.

"A common base for planning and launching joint operations against the jihadist group Islamic State (IS) was targeted by a Turkish drone" in an area north of the city of Hassaké in northeastern Syria, said to AFP Farhad Shami, a spokesman for the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish-dominated coalition.

He also indicated that two SDF fighters had died in this strike and that three had been injured.

The international coalition, the main support of the SDF and which deploys soldiers in areas controlled by Kurdish forces in northern and northeastern Syria, has not yet commented on this attack.

Turkey, meanwhile, describes as "terrorist" the main component of the SDF, the YPG (People's Protection Units) which it considers an extension of the Turkish Kurdish rebels of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

She accuses him of having ordered the attack which killed six people and injured 81 on November 13 in Istanbul.

Both the YPG and the PKK have denied any involvement.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH) confirmed that the joint base had been hit, along with the deaths of two fighters.

He was unable to say whether coalition soldiers were present at the base at the time of the strike.

Hundreds of soldiers from the international coalition, including Americans, are deployed in areas under Kurdish control in Syria, a country fragmented due to the war started in 2011.

Ground operation 'will begin soon'

The drone strike comes three days after the Turkish Air Force launched Operation Sword Claw with a series of airstrikes on Saturday evening and before dawn on Sunday that targeted PKK and YPG positions in northern Turkey. Syria and neighboring Iraq.

Raids that left at least 37 dead, according to the OSDH.

In the process, on Tuesday morning, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan assured that a ground operation by the Turkish army in Syria will begin "soon God willing".

"We flew over the terrorists for a few days with our air force and our drones. God willing, we will eliminate them soon with our soldiers, our guns and our tanks," he said during a speech in the north. - east of the country.

Faced with this threat, Washington and Moscow, also involved in the war in Syria which has claimed nearly half a million lives since 2011, have called on Ankara to exercise restraint. 

"We call for de-escalation in Syria to protect civilians and support the common goal of defeating Islamic State," US State Department spokesman Ned Price said on Tuesday evening.

"We continue to oppose any uncoordinated military action in Iraq that violates [the country's] sovereignty," he added in a statement. 

Russia also said on Tuesday that it "hoped" that Turkey would show "restraint" and would refrain from "any excessive use of force" in Syria.

"We call on all parties to refrain from any initiative that could lead to serious destabilization of the overall situation," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

On Monday, Berlin and Paris had also called on Ankara respectively to act "proportionately" and to "show more restraint".

In response, Turkey demands on Tuesday that its allies, led by the United States, "cease all support" to YPG fighters whom it considers terrorists.

With AFP

The summary of the

France 24 week invites you to come back to the news that marked the week

I subscribe

Take international news everywhere with you!

Download the France 24 app