ANKARA (Sputnik) — An estimated 160-200 Kurdish self-defense forces have been killed in Turkish airstrikes in northern Syria, Turkey's General Staff said Thursday.
"Our Air Force as part of the Euphrates Shield operation carried out 26 strikes on 18 targets of the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces — the Kurdistan Workers' Party, killing 160-200 militants," the General Staff said.
Nine buildings controlled by the Kurdish formations, five vehicles and arms depots have been destroyed in the strikes, it added.
On August 24, Turkish forces, backed by US-led coalition aircraft, began a military operation dubbed Euphrates Shield to clear the Syrian border town of Jarablus and the surrounding area of Daesh, outlawed in Russia and many other countries. As Jarablus was retaken, the joint forces of Ankara, the coalition and Syrian rebels continued the offensive southwest. The intervention prompted accusations of invasion from Damascus and Syrian Kurds.
