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Shelling killed 19 civilians yesterday as Syria’s Kurds fought a fierce battle against militants from the Islamic State (IS) in the northeastern province of Hasakeh, a monitoring group said. |
Among the civilians killed in Hajiyeh and Tal Khalil villages were five children, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The deaths came as the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) advanced in their fight against IS, seizing a string of villages around militant bastion Tal Hamis, which is strategically important because of its proximity to the main Kurdish city of Qamishli.
Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said the YPG, backed by Arab tribesmen opposed to IS, and IS fighters were using “all kinds of shells” to target opposing positions in the fighting.
“It is impossible to confirm who was behind the shelling that killed the 19 civilians,” he said.
The Observatory earlier reported air strikes by the Syrian air force against millitant targets in Hasakeh province late Saturday and yesterday morning.
Kurdish fighters were the first in Syria to battle IS.
They were followed by rebels seeking President Bashar al-Assad’s overthrow and the regime has recently stepped up its own campaign against IS, carrying out near-daily air strikes against militant positions.
