BEIRUT — Turkish shelling and airstrikes have targeted dozens of infrastructure facilities in northeast Syria over the past days, wounding at least 10 people and cutting out electricity and water supplies in wide areas held by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces in the war-torn country, Kurdish-led authorities in northeast Syria said Monday.
The statement by the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria said the 73 attacks by Turkey’s military over the past two days have hit oil, electricity and water facilities as well as warehouses where grain is stored. The statement added that power supplies were cut in major towns and hundreds of villages and hamlets.
“The Turkish state aims to target all resources of life in the region,” said Siamand Ali, a spokesman of the Syrian Democratic Forces. He added that air strikes and artillery shelling hit northeastern towns and villages and around noon Monday, a strike hit the Internal Security Forces building in the border town of Qamishli.
Turkey often launches strikes against targets in Syria and Iraq it believes to be affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK — a banned Kurdish separatist group that has waged an insurgency against Turkey since the 1980s. Turkey says that the main Kurdish militia in Syria, known as People’s Defense Units, or YPG, is an affiliate of the PKK.
Turkey’s defense minister, Yasar Gulers, said Monday that Turkish warplanes destroyed 78 suspected Kurdish militant targets in airstrikes launched in northern Iraq and in Syria following the attack that killed nine Turkish soldiers in Iraq on Friday.
Speaking at a video conference with high-level military officials, Guler said 77 “terrorists” were killed in the strikes that targeted caves, bunkers, shelters and oil facilities used by the militants, according to Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency.
He said the operations were concentrated in Iraq’s Metina, Khakourk, Gara and Qandil regions. He did not say which areas of Syria were targeted.
“Our fight against terrorism will continue until not a single terrorist remains,” he said.
On Friday night, attackers attempted to infiltrate a military base in northern Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region, killing five soldiers. Four others died later of critical injuries.
The PKK, which maintains bases in northern Iraq, is considered a terror organization by Turkey’s Western allies, including the United States. Tens of thousands of people have died since the start of the conflict in 1984.
Turkey and the U.S., however, disagree on the status of the Syrian Kurdish groups, which have been allied with Washington in the fight against the Islamic State group in Syria.