The PKK terrorist organization’s Syrian wing, the YPG, on Sunday targeted a camp for displaced people near Afrin province, killing one civilian and injuring two others, including a woman, the White Helmets civil defense group said.
“The international community has chosen to stay silent about the terrorist attacks on civilians in northwest Syria,” the White Helmets wrote on Twitter, adding that the international community “fails to hold the perpetrators of these terrorist attacks accountable, leaving civilians under direct threat, unable to live in peace and security.”
The group said that missiles were fired from areas controlled by the YPG and the forces loyal to the Bashar Assad regime and hit the Kuayt al-Rahma camp near Afrin, north of Aleppo.
“The camp is home to 290 families who were displaced by the regime forces and Russia from the western countryside of Aleppo and the countryside of Idlib in the wake of the last invasion by the regime and Russia forces in 2019 and the beginning of 2020,” the White Helmets said further.
The group also said that civilians were targeted by Russia just one day before.
“With heavy artillery, the regime forces and Russia targeted the villages of Kadora, al-Fatirah, Sufuhun and Benin in the southern countryside of Idlib, causing material damage but no injuries.”
“Targeting IDP camps is a war crime that must not go unpunished. This repeated targeting of camps, civilians and vital facilities in the cities and towns of northwestern Syria is a clear violation of international and humanitarian law,” the statement added.
The YPG has controlled much of northeastern Syria since the forces of Syrian regime leader Bashar Assad withdrew in 2012.
The latest attack comes as Ankara increasingly warns of the terror threat on its southern border.
Turkey, which has mounted four operations in northern Syria since 2016, has vowed a new operation against YPG terrorists that control swathes of territory near the Turkish border. Among the potential targets are Manbij and Tal Rifaat.
The terrorists often target Turkish forces who provide security in the Euphrates Shield, Olive Branch and Peace Spring areas and try to infiltrate the positions of Syrian opposition fighters from regions that the terrorist group was supposed to withdraw from under the agreements with the United States and Russia.
Local people living in areas held by the YPG have long suffered from its atrocities, as the terrorist organization has a notorious record of human rights abuses, ranging from kidnappings, recruitment of child soldiers, torture, ethnic cleansing and forced displacement in Syria. The YPG has forced young people from areas under its control to join its forces within the so-called "compulsory conscription in the duty of self-defense."
