Turkey Steps Up Artillery, Rocket Strikes On Northern Syria After Attack On Border Base (Video)

Late on January 20, the Turkish military stepped up its artillery and rocket strikes on areas held by Kurdish forces in Syria northern region following an indirect fire attack that targeted one of its border bases.

A salvo of rockets hit the Turkish base, which is located near the Bab al-Salam border crossing in the northern Aleppo countryside.

In a statement, the Turkish Ministry of National Defense said that the attack didn’t result in any casualties or material losses. According to the ministry, the People’s Protection Unites, the core faction of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party were behind the attack, which was launched from the outskirts of the town of Tell Rifaat in the northern countryside of Aleppo.

Turkish retaliatory artillery and rocket strikes hit several positions of Kurdish forces in Tell Rifaat and nearby towns. Around 11 Kurdish fighters were allegedly “neutralized.”

The attack on the Bab al-Salam base came just a few hours after a similar rocket strike that hit a base of the Turkish military and a police center of its proxies in the nearby town of Azaz. At least six Turkish-backed militants were wounded in the attack, which was also attributed to Kurdish forces.

The recent attacks on Turkish bases in northern Syria will lead to more escalation. Ankara could use these attacks to justify a new ground operation in the region against the SDF. Last November, the Turkish military was about to launch an operation if it was not for the intervention of the United States and Russia.

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