MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Earlier in the day, Turkey's General Staff said an estimated 160-200 Kurdish self-defense forces had been killed in Turkish airstrikes in northern Syria.
"The offensive has proved the close cooperation between Turkey, the opposition which supports it and the Islamic State terrorist group against the Democratic Forces. Those opposition forces must be designated as terrorists," Rodi Osman, the head of Syrian Kurdistan's representative office in Moscow, said in an official statement.
He called on Russia, the United Nations, the United States and human rights organizations "to open eyes on what is going on and to exert pressure on Turkey."
He added that the Turkish warplanes shelled the settlements of Umm Housh, Umm Qura and Hesia, as well as the city of al-Shahba in the north of the Aleppo province, 26 times on Wednesday.
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 Jarabulus and the surrounding area of IS, outlawed in Russia and many other countries. As Jarabulus was retaken, the joint forces of Ankara, the coalition and Syrian opposition continued the offensive southwest.
