130 Turkish drone strikes on NES in 2022 – Report
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – Turkey conducted 130 drone strikes on northeast Syria in 2022 – a 46% increase over 2021, a report by the Rojava Information Center (RIC), a Syria-based research group, said on Thursday.
In total, 87 people were killed and 151 people were injured. The toll of civilian casualties is 25 and 79, respectively. A quarter of all strikes targeted cars. And more than half of all strikes occurred in the Jazira Region (Hasakah Governorate), particularly on the Derbasiyah-Tirbe Spi (al-Qahtaniyah) road, which follows the Turkish border. The city of Qamishli alone was hit eight times.
Attacks spiked in the summer, following a Turkish-Iranian-Russian meeting. The highest rate of attacks was recorded in November 2022, when Turkey launched a large-scale aerial operation (‘Claw Sword’), which targeted crucial oil and gas infrastructure in the Jazira Region.
On Nov. 20, 2022, the Turkish forces carried out an intense and wide spread aerial operation against north and northeast Syria. The operation destroyed facilities and infrastructure along the whole border strip from Aleppo northern countryside in the northwest up to Derik (al-Malikiyah) in the northeast.
According to RIC, Turkey’s drone attack campaign, which overwhelmingly targets higher-ups of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), is having a detrimental effect on the group’s ability to fight ISIS in the region. “These can be harmful against the mission to defeat ISIS, especially when the attacks from Turkey kill the fighters of the People’s/Women’s Protections Units (YPG/YPJ) who are responsible for fighting ISIS,” US Colonel Myles Caggins, former Coalition spokesman, said. Such personnel is not easily replaceable.
The RIC also argued that Turkey’s attacks deprive the local population from stable gas and fuel sources and depress the already-battered economy. By targeting members involved in the nascent democratic project in the region, Turkey is also aiming to destabilize northeast Syria politically.
The report concluded that too little international condemnation is being heard. US statements commemorating SDF fighters who died during the Turkish drone attacks never mention their killers. This enables Turkey. Its threats of ground invasion often faces widespread condemnation. However, Ankara’s “drone war goes by largely unremarked upon and unchallenged,” the RIC said.