An STM Kargu loitering munition. Source: STM. Click to see full-size image.
On August 4, the Turkish military targeted the center of Tell Rifaat town in the northern countryside of Aleppo with a loitering munition.
The loitering munition, most likely a Kargu, exploded next to a headquarters of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which controls Tell Rifaat and its surroundings. Local sources in the town said that the strike wounded seven people, including five children.
The Kargu loitering munition, which was designed by Turkey’s STM, has a maximum range of five kilometers and an endurance of 30 minutes. The munition can operate in a swarm and has AI [artificial intelligence] image processing capabilities with support for facial recognition.
The strike was likely a response to an attack with 107 mm rockets that targeted the Turkish-occupied town of Azaz in the northern Aleppo countryside late on August 3. The attack, which was blamed on the SDF, wounded five people, including a child.
Tensions in northern Syria started in May, when the Turkish military and its proxies began making preparations to launch a new operation against the SDF.
Tell Rifaat and the nearby town of Manbij were both named by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as the main targets of any new Turkish military operation in Syria. The Syrian Arab Army and the Russian Military Police are present in both towns.
Turkey is apparently still determined to escalate against the SDF. This will only worsen the humanitarian situation in northern Syria.
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Here we go again
Yes, the WAR as BEAST means it