IDLIB — Turkey has recently stepped up its strikes against the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), the main component of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), in Syria. Ankara views the YPG as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which Turkey and its Western allies classify as a terrorist organization.

The SDF had led the battles against the Islamic State (IS) in Syria with the support of the US-led international coalition.

On Aug. 23, a military official said a Turkish drone targeted a military vehicle that was parked near the western entrance of the city of Qamishli at the gate of a medical center in the vicinity of the village of Himo. He said the attack resulted in casualties, but he neither disclosed their numbers nor health status. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the Turkish drone targeted a political leader in the Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria.

On Aug. 21, a Turkish drone targeted a prominent YPG leader who succumbed to his wounds after he got hit along with his companion at the Ali Faro road junction connecting the city of Qamishli to the town of Amuda. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Kurdish leader was of Iranian nationality.