According to a war monitor and US-backed Kurdish forces, Turkish air raids hit several northern Syrian towns late Saturday. In the Kobane and Aleppo countryside, 25 air strikes were reported by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. At least 12 people, including both SDF and Syrian army troops, were killed in the air strikes, according to a British monitor. Later, Turkey’s Defense Ministry said that its air strikes targeted militant bases from which they staged attacks.
Ankara has blamed today’s attacks on the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) for a blast in central Istanbul last week that killed many people. The Turkish Defense Ministry declared in a tweet early on Sunday that “the hour of reckoning has come”.Neither the country nor the location of the night operation was given in the tweet, which included a picture of a plane taking off for a night operation.