In the present report, Syrians for Truth and Justice (STJ) details two Turkish airstrikes, likely carried out using drones, in the city of Ayn al-Arab/Kobanî in northern Syria on 28 January and 16 March 2025, which resulted in the deaths of 22 civilians, half of whom are children.
Ayn al-Arab is administratively under the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (DAANES) and militarily controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Since 2022, Ayn al-Arab and its surrounding countryside have frequently been targeted by intensive airstrikes conducted by the Turkish military against areas in northeastern Syria. The most recent strike, in late October 2024, killed 14 civilians and wounded 22 others. Türkiye asserts that these operations aim at the People’s Protection Units (YPG), affiliated with the SDF, which it considers the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), designated by Türkiye as a terrorist organization.
Nevertheless, the city experienced a rise in violence when the Syrian National Army (SNA), supported by Türkiye, launched Operation Dawn of Freedom on 30 November 2024, with the goal of taking control of areas held by the SDF. This operation led to the SDF capturing Manbij, while both the Tishrin Dam and the Qarah Qawzaq/Qereqozaqê Bridge on the Euphrates River became frontline zones between the two sides. Attacks by Turkish forces and the SNA around the Tishrin Dam resulted in 24 civilians being killed and at least 200 others injured, all of whom had gathered in the dam area to protest against the assaults.
The Qarah Qawzaq Bridge, located in the countryside of Ayn al-Arab, serves as a strategic base for building lines of defense against attacks on Ayn al-Arab, Ain Issa, Raqqa, Al Tabqah, and other areas controlled by the SDF.
The first airstrike documented in this report took place on 28 January 2025, targeting a public market in the town of Sarrin, in Ayn al-Arab. The strike resulted in the killing of 12 civilians, including three children, and the injury of 13 others. The second airstrike occurred on 16 March 2025, targeting a farm located between the villages of Qumji and Barkh Batan, south of Ayn al-Arab. This strike resulted in the killing of 10 civilians, including eight children, and the injury of another girl, all of whom belonged to the same family.
It is notable that the second airstrike occurred after a series of military agreements aimed at easing tensions between the conflicting parties and protecting civilians. The SNA factions announced their formal and practical integration into the Syrian Ministry of Defense of the Syrian Interim Government following the “Victory Conference,” held on 29 January 2025. Meanwhile, the government, led by Ahmed al-Sharaa, signed an agreement with the SDF on 11 March 2025, stipulating a ceasefire across all Syrian territories.
The airstrike raised concern among Turkish circles, as the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (HDP) called it a “massacre,” stating that the attack was “a deliberate message aimed at destroying hopes for peace.” Tuncer Bakırhan, the party’s co-chair, condemned the strike during a press conference he held jointly with officials from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) to discuss steps toward implementing the call of the PKK leader, Abdullah Öcalan, to dissolve the party. He said: “We would like to emphasize that these attacks and similar actions will cause severe damage to the ongoing processes, whether here (the dissolution of the party) or in Syria (the agreement between the SDF and the Syrian administration to integrate into state institutions).”
Based on the information in the report, STJ recommends that the new government take effective steps to ensure stability and protection for all areas covered by the agreement with the SDF, building on its earlier move of deploying Syrian army forces and general security to the Tishrin Dam on 12 April 2025. It also urges conducting transparent and effective investigations into the killings documented in this report, as well as other indiscriminate killings carried out by Turkish forces, if any, by independent and impartial investigative committees. The reports issued by these committees should be made public to guarantee the full right of the victims and their families to know the truth. Most importantly, STJ recommends that relevant international bodies open investigations into the airstrikes documented here and work to hold those responsible accountable. This should be done in a way that ensures justice for the victims, protects civilians in the targeted areas, and respects international humanitarian law, measures that would help improve stability across all of Syria. The organization also calls on the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic (COI Syria) to include these incidents in its upcoming report and to urge the Turkish government to respect the right to life of civilians, the principle of distinction between combatants and civilians as well as between military targets and civilian objects, and the principle of proportionality, which calls for avoiding excessive harm to civilians and civilian objects compared to the limited military advantage expected from military operations.
The report is based on nine detailed testimonials collected by STJ from victims or witnesses of the Turkish airstrikes and shelling in Ayn al-Arab. Some of them asked that their identities or any details that could reveal them remain confidential for security reasons; therefore, pseudonyms have been used to refer to them below.
You may read and download the full version of the report by clicking here.