|
The
artillery fire hit within the town and around its edges,
starting overnight and intensifying throughout the day,
according to residents and the semi-autonomous local
administration governing the town.
The administration said in an online statement that at least one
child died due to the shelling and others were wounded.
Ankara sees the semi-autonomous system - spearheaded by Kurdish
factions and governing swathes of northern and eastern Syria -
as a national security threat on its border.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has pledged a new incursion to
create a 30-kilometer safe zone in northern Syria, swallowing up
Kobane and other towns held by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic
Forces.
Kobane has been relatively calm since U.S.-backed Kurdish
fighters pushed back Islamic State fighters from the town in
2015.
But shelling and drone attacks have been ramping up in many
border towns. At least three Kurdish commanders were killed last
month which the SDF blamed on Ankara.
Dilvin, a shopkeeper and married mother of one, said scenes of
chaos broke out in Kobane when the shelling intensified on
Tuesday.
"People started running everywhere, cars everywhere, people
asking about their friends and their family. Then the sounds
started to build, the sounds were everywhere," she told Reuters
by phone from Kobane.
"There was so much screaming. So much fear. Now everyone is
locked up at home," said Dilvin, who preferred to identify
herself with just a first name for security reasons.
(Reporting by Maya Gebeily, editing by Ed Osmond)
[© 2022 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
|
|
