SOHR: US ‘deeply concerned’ about violence on Syria-Turkey border

Washington is “deeply concerned” by the recent escalation of violence along Syria’s northern border with Turkey, a State Department spokesman said on Monday.

“The United States is deeply concerned about recent attacks on Syria’s northern border and urges all parties to maintain the ceasefire line,” spokesman Ned Price said, days after increased bombing in the area killed at least 21 civilians, including children.

“We are saddened by the civilian casualties in al-Bab, Hasqah and elsewhere,” Price said, adding that the United States is “committed to ensuring the permanent defeat of ISIS and a political solution to the conflict in Syria.”

The latest bloodshed comes against the backdrop of increased tensions by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) against Turkish troops and their Syrian proxies.

Turkish attack on Syrian border post kills 11: Monitor

On Friday, Kurdish authorities said a pre-dawn strike by a Turkish drone hit “a training center for little girls” in the Shmouka area near Haskeh in the northeast, killing four children and wounding 11 others.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor with an extensive network of sources on the ground, confirmed the figure.

In Al-Bab, a town controlled by Syrian factions loyal to Ankara, “artillery fire on a market by pro-regime forces killed 17 civilians, including six children – and injured 35 others,” the Observatory said.

An AFP correspondent said the attack tore through a market in the town near the Syrian-Turkish border, describing it as a mess of body parts, strewn vegetables and handcarts.