Turkey launched a military operation in northeastern Syria on October 9th, targeting US-backed Kurdish forces near the Turkish-Syrian border. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, 8 of the 11 casualties caused by Turkish warplanes and artillery so far were civilians, not military personnel.
Qamishlo, Syria-based journalist Baderkhan Ahmad tells the Investigative Journal about Turkey’s assault on northeastern Syria, including the shelling of his neighborhood and the death of one of his neighbors, a Syriac Christian woman. Ahmad and many others in his area were surprised by the scale of Turkey’s attack and had expected the international community to step in. “We are very worried for what will happen in my region in the next hours,” he said. “Of course, we still have hope, but the people here don’t trust what Trump is saying.”