Ankara's forces and its allied fighters have been moving ahead with an operation in Syria targeting Daesh* and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) despite criticism from the EU, the US, and the Arab League. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, at least 38 civilians have been killed since the fighting started five days ago.
General Secretary of the Future Syria Party Hevrin Khalaf and her driver have been killed on an international road in Syria by Turkey-backed fighters, Kurdish forces report. According to the party, cited by the news outlet Kurdistan 24, the 35-year-old woman, who earlier lambasted Ankara's attempts “to occupy this land in order to defend the Turkish people” and that they “don't adjust to reality”, was ambushed on her way from Jazeera canton to Raqqa. The attackers reportedly blocked the road at a checkpoint and killed people there.
The political wing of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC), later stated that she was “taken out of her car during a Turkish-backed attack and executed by Turkish-backed mercenary factions”, along with her driver.
“This is clear evidence that the Turkish state is continuing its criminal policy towards unarmed civilians”, their statement reads.
As the local watchdog the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), cited by The Guardian, claims, the vocal critic of the Turkish offensive was one of nine civilians executed at different points south…
