AANES’s Education Board condemns targeting children by Turkey
RAQQA, Syria (North Press) – Education Board affiliated to the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) in Kobani, northern Syria, condemned, on Tuesday, Turkey’s targeting of students at a school in the countryside of Ain Issa, north of Raqqa Governorate, northern Syria.
The Education Board called on the UNICEF and the international community to protect children and stop attacks on schools.
From Oct. 5 to Oct. 9, 172 sites in areas and cities in north and northeast Syria were struck by Turkish airstrikes, shells, and drone attacks, targeting residential areas, military posts and infrastructure, including oil fields, gas plants, power stations, and others, according to the Monitoring and Documentation Department of North Press.
The strikes took place following a statement by Turkey’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hakan Fidan, in which he threatened to strike a broader range of targets in Syria and Iraq in retaliation for the Ankara attack.
On Oct. 1, two individuals carried out a bomb attack in front of the building of the Ministry of Interior in Turkey’s Ankara injuring two police officers.
On Oct. 4, Fidan claimed that the two attackers had been trained in Syria. “From now on, all infrastructure, large facilities and energy facilities belonging to (armed Kurdish groups) in Iraq and Syria are legitimate targets for our security forces,” he threatened.
Two children were killed, on Monday, in a Turkish shelling that targeted the village of al-Mastura in the countryside of Ain Issa.
The Board stated in a press release that Turkey’s targeting of infrastructure and vital facilities such as schools, hospitals, and academies amounts to war crimes.
The Education Board called on the international community, human rights organizations, the UNICEF, the guarantor states, and the US-led Global Coalition to stop the Turkish attacks and put an end to targeting children.