IDLIB, Syria (Reuters) – At least seven people were killed and several wounded in two separate artillery attacks on the northern Syrian town of Afrin on Saturday, civil defense sources said.
The first attack targeted a residential area, while the second targeted a hospital shortly after, killing at least six.
Video footage on social media showed casualties amid the ruins of the Al Shifa hospital.
A local Turkish official said sources at the hospital claimed the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia hit the building with a missile launcher, according to initial reports. The official said the Turkish artillery are shelling rural positions near the city of Maarat al-Numan in response.
Turkey regards the YPG as a terrorist group tied to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) inside its own borders, and has staged incursions into Syria in support of Syrian rebels to push it from the Turkish frontier.
Ankara now retains a large military presence in the area deploying thousands of troops in the last rebel enclave.
(Reporting by Khalil Ashawi in Idlib; Additional reporting by Jonathan Spicer in Istanbul; Writing by Maha El Dahan; Editing by Mike Harrison)
