6 civilians including baby killed in YPG attacks on Turkish border towns

Six civilians have been killed and 70 others injured in rocket and mortar attacks launched by People's Protection Units (YPG) terrorists from northern Syria to Turkey's southeastern Şanlıurfa and Mardin provinces on Thursday.

Three people, including a 9-month-old baby and an 11-year-old girl, were killed and 46 civilians were injured in mortar attacks, Şanlıurfa Governor's Office said Thursday.

According to the local governor, Syrian baby Muhammed Omar and another person were killed amid attacks against the Turkish border town of Akçakale that injured another 46 civilians.

''The terrorist organization PKK/PYD-YPG committed yet another heinous crime against humanity today. They killed two civilians, including a baby, in a mortar attack against Akçakale, a Turkish town at the Syrian border,'' Turkey's National Defense Ministry said on Twitter.

"The Turkish Armed Forces neutralized the PKK/PYD-YPG terrorists who killed innocent civilians today, and destroyed their positions," the ministry added, extending its condolences to the Turkish nation.

An 11-year-old girl lost her life later Thursday in an attack on the Ceylanpınar district of Şanlıurfa. She was hit in the chest by shrapnel while playing in the street and died at the hospital, the Governor's Office said.

In the Nusaybin district of Mardin, a mother and her two teenage daughters were killed and 24 people were injured on Thursday. Fatma Yıldız, 48, and her daughters Emine, 12, and Leyla, 15, were killed in YPG rocket and mortar attacks, the local governor's office said.

Turkey launched Operation Peace Spring, the third in a series of cross-border anti-terror operations in northern Syria targeting terrorists affiliated with Daesh and the PKK's Syrian offshoot the People's Protection Units (YPG), on October 9 at 4 p.m.

The operation, conducted in line with the country's right to self-defense borne out of international law and U.N. Security Council resolutions, aims to establish a terror-free safe zone for Syrians return in the area east of the Euphrates River controlled by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which is dominated by YPG terrorists.

The PKK — listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the European Union — has waged a terror campaign against Turkey for more than 30 years, resulting in the deaths of nearly 40,000 people, including women, children and infants.

Turkey has long decried the threat from terrorists east of the Euphrates in northern Syria, pledging military action to prevent the formation of a "terrorist corridor" there.

Since 2016, Turkey's Euphrates Shield and Olive Branch operations in northwestern Syria have liberated the region from YPG/PKK and Daesh terrorists, making it possible for nearly 400,000 Syrians who fled the violence to return home.