Turkey escalated its bombing of civilian targets in North East Syria (in the region known as Rojava) on October 5.
This followed comments by Turkey's foreign minister on October 4, in the wake of a suicide attack in Ankara, that all infrastructure and energy facilities operated by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and Peoples Protection Units (YPG) in Iraq and Syria were "legitimate targets" for the security forces.
The Internationalist Commune of Rojava told Green Left these are the most significant military attacks in the region in a long time.
"The Turkish fascist state is bombing cities all over the region with drones, fighter jets and artillery. The main targets of the bombings are civilian infrastructure, such as power stations, oil facilities, construction sites, etc. As a result of the attacks many civilians lost their lives and many got heavily injured.
"In a region that is war torn and under heavy economic embargo for years, the destruction of the fundamental infrastructure equals a humanitarian catastrophe. Furthermore the Turkish state targeted the refugee camp Washokani in the canton of Heseke, where thousands of displaced people found shelter after the Turkish state occupied their city in 2019."
The Congress of Democratic Societies of Kurdistan in Europe (KCDK-E) told the anfenglish.com: "These attacks against North-East Syria are against the international law and the Turkish army is committing a crime against humanity. Dictator [Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan and the genocidal Turkish state constitute a great threat to the region.
“This aggression, which comes on the eve of the 9 October conspiracy (against Abdullah Öcalan) is directed against the Rojava revolution and all the achievements of the Kurdish people. The genocidal Turkish state finds itself in a deadlock in the face of international support against the international conspiracy and attacks North-East Syria with the intention of annihilation.
"The silence of the Syrian state, Russia and international powers against the Turkish attacks is an approval of Kurdish genocide. We strongly condemn the ongoing attacks by the Turkish state and we call on everyone to take a stand against them.”