A missile strike launched by Bashar Assad regime forces on an opposition-controlled area in northern Syria killed nine members of the Syrian National Army (SNA) on Wednesday, opposition activists said.
The activists said the attack happened just south of the northern town of Afrin, which was liberated by Turkey in a counterterrorism operation.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, and the opposition’s Orient News said the nine fighters who were killed belonged to the Faylaq al-Sham faction of the Turkey-backed SNA.
Orient reported that the attack targeted a bus carrying Faylaq al-Sham forces to the front lines to replace their comrades.
Syrian regime forces now control much of the country with the help of Assad’s main backers, Russia and Iran. The conflict that began in March 2011 has killed hundreds of thousands and displaced half the country’s prewar population of 23 million.
For years, the Assad regime has ignored the needs and safety of the Syrian people, only eyeing further gains of territory and crushing the opposition. With this aim, the regime has for years bombed vital facilities like schools, hospitals and residential areas, causing the displacement of almost half of the country’s population while adopting policies to make their lives more difficult.
Front lines have experienced sporadic bombardment since a Russian-backed regime offensive ended in March 2020 following a truce reached by the presidents of Russia and Turkey who support rival parties in the Syrian conflict.
On Tuesday, the United Nations said the first 10 years of Syria’s conflict killed more than 306,887 civilians – the highest official estimate to date of conflict-related civilian deaths in the country.
The figures released by the U.N. do not include soldiers and insurgents killed in the conflict. Their numbers are believed to be in the tens of thousands.
Three members of the PKK terrorist organization's Syrian wing, the YPG, were arrested by Turkish forces in Afrin, northern Syria. The terrorists are suspected of having taken part in the killing of 90 SNA members in 2016.
An Interior Ministry statement released Thursday said the suspects were caught thanks to the combined efforts of the police intelligence directorate, the Hatay intelligence branch and the Afrin task force, adding that the terrorists confessed to playing a role in the killings.
The ministry highlighted that the terrorists had “gathered the corpses of the Syrian National Army members and shot at them after which they exposed the corpses in Afrin and several places on the trailer of a truck in a convoy.”
