Turkey Strikes Refugee Camp in Northeasten Syria

Turkey on Wednesday struck a refugee camp in northeastern Syria administered by semi-autonomous Kurdish forces that is home to 50,000 people, including relatives of suspected ISIS fighters, Syrians displaced by the civil war, and Iraqi refugees. Children make up 64% of the residents of the Al-Hol camp.

There were five strikes on the camp, Farhad Shami, a spokesman for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), told the AFP news agency. No casualties have yet been reported.

On Wednesday, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar told the official Andolu news agency that Operation Claw-Sword, which was launched on Sunday, has so far struck 471 targets, and “neutralized” 254 terrorists. The operation came in response to a November 13 attack on a pedestrian mall in Istanbul that left 6 people dead and wounded dozens more, that Turkey blames on Kurdish groups – the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in northern Iraq as well as the Kurdish People’s Protection group (YPG) along the Syrian border. Both groups have denied involvement in the attack.