At least 21 civilians, including children, were killed yesterday Friday in the north Syria from bombing by forces close to the Syrian regime and from Turkish army.

Turkey has stationed troops in the north of the war-torn country with the support of Syrian rebel groups. Turkish soldiers are conducting operations against Syrian Kurdish forces that control much of northern Syria.

At dawn yesterday Friday, a Turkish drone struck a “center for underage girls” in the city of Smuka, near Hasaka in northeastern Syria, killing “four children and injuring 11,” the autonomous Kurdish administration said in a statement.

This information was confirmed by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which clarified that the children were sleeping.

In al-Bab, a city controlled by Ankara-backed Syrian rebels on the Syrian-Turkish border, “a pro-government artillery shelling of a marketplace killed 17 civilians, including six children, and wounded 35 others,” the Observatory added.

A local correspondent for AFP said he saw local residents and rescuers rushing to pick up the injured, mostly children.

Farhad Sami, a spokesman for the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF, a Kurdish-dominated armed group), said his forces had “nothing to do” with the attacks on al-Bab.

Since May, Turkey has been threatening to launch a major offensive against Kurdish forces that control much of northeast Syria.

According to the Observatory and Kurdish officials, since July, Turkish drones have been increasingly targeting areas controlled by the SDF.

Yesterday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Ankara has “no ambitions” for Syrian territory. He even added that he wants his country’s relations with Damascus to “pass into another phase”, believing that improved bilateral relations will contribute to peace in the region.

^{Sources: APE-MPE, AFP.}