A Bayraktar TB2 combat drone. Source: Baykar.
Early on August 19, several shells hit a base of the Turkish military near the town of Azaz in the northern countryside of Syria’s Aleppo.
The shelling didn’t cause any casualties or material losses. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said that the shells were fired by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in response to a Turkish drone strike that targeted one of its vehicles in the nearby towns of Nubl and al-Zahraa.
The drone strike, which took place late on August 18, claimed the life of a Kurdish fighter and left three others wounded, according to the London-based monitoring group.
The SOHR said that this was the eighth Turkish drone strike to target SDF-held areas in northern and eastern Syria this month. In total, the strikes killed four personnel of the group and wounded ten others. Some of the casualties were commanders.
The recent strikes are an example of how the Turkish military is increasingly relying on its combat drones to contain the threat posed by the SDF.
Last year, Turkey threatened to launch a new invasion into the SDF territory. However, warnings from the United States, the main backer of the group, as well as from Russia forced Ankara to abandon the idea of a ground operation in northern and eastern Syria.
