Turkey has announced that it has been able to ‘neutralised’ at least 24 members of Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in northern Syria.
According to a statement made public by the defence ministry on Wednesday, this happened after a Turkish soldier was killed in a missile attack in the area.
The missile attack was reportedly launched in Turkey’s Operation Olive Branch zone in northern Syria,
Africa Daily News, New York reports that Turkish authorities often use the term ‘neutralise’ to imply that ‘terrorists’ were killed, wounded, or captured in given security operations.
The tension between YPG and the Turkish military heightened following an attack by the YPG a police checkpoint in Mare.
Read Also: Police Detain Many Following May Day Clashes In Turkey
Mare is a settlement in the Operation Euphrates Shield zone with anti-tank weapons on April 22, killing one Turkish police officer.
Turkish forces and the YPG members often exchange fire on the Syrian border.
The Turkish army launched Operation Euphrates Shield in 2016, Operation Olive Branch in 2018, Operation Peace Spring in 2019, and Operation Spring Shield in 2020 in northern Syria.
Turkish authorities said the operations aimed to eliminate terror threats against Turkey and provide a safe zone that would facilitate the return of Syrian refugees to their homes.
Ankara sees the YPG as the Syrian branch of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
The PKK, listed as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, has been rebelling against the Turkish government for more than three decades.
Meanwhile, Africa Daily News, New York had reported that Turkish police on Sunday detained no fewer than 160 protesters who were trying to hold a May Day rally in defiance of a ban which was recently imposed by the governor’s office on workers in the country.
Images which were sighted on social media by Africa Daily News, New York on Monday showed riot police clashing with protesters very close to Istanbul’s Taksim Square, pinning some of them forcefully to the ground before rounding them up in a police car.
