The Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) announced in a statement on Sunday that 25 militants from the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) were killed on Sunday in an air operation in the Jarabulus region of Syria as a part of an operation launched by Turkey and a US-led coalition last week.
According to the TSK, buildings used by the militants were also destroyed in the air strikes.
The Turkish military also said it is “taking every precaution and showing maximum sensitivity to ensure that civilians living in the area are not harmed.”
However, monitors from the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights have said Turkish air strikes on Sunday killed at least 35 civilians in northern Syria.
The watchdog said 20 people were killed in the village of Jub-al-Kousa. Fifty people were wounded in the attack in an area controlled by militia allied with the Kurdish-backed Syrian Democratic Forces.
The Observatory said another air strike killed 15 civilians and wounded 20 others near the town of al-Armana.
Turkey sent tanks across the border to help Syrian rebels drive the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) from the border city of Jarabulus last Thursday in a dramatic escalation of its involvement in the Syrian civil war.
The operation, called Euphrates Shield, is also aimed at pushing back US-allied Kurdish forces. The fighting pits a NATO ally against a US-backed proxy that is the most effective ground force battling ISIL in Syria.