BEIRUT: A Turkish drone killed five civilians in northeastern Syria on Saturday, a war monitor said, two days after the death of Kurdish journalists in similar circumstances.

Since the ouster of Syria’s president Bashar al-Assad on December 8, Turkey has emphasised its backing for armed groups fighting Kurdish forces that control part of the country’s north.

“Two civilians, a woman and a political party member, succumbed to their wounds, bringing to five the number of people killed Saturday by Turkish drone strikes,” the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Earlier Saturday, the Hawar Kurdish news agency in Syria reported: “The Turkish occupation targeted a car with a drone strike on a road between Al-Hawl and Tal Brak” in Hasakeh province, “killing three civilians”.

In a statement, the Kurdish Internal Security Force said: “This crime is one of a series of flagrant violations of international law and human rights which forbid the targeting of civilians.”

Five killed in Turkiye strikes on PKK allies: Iraqi local sources

Separately, a Turkish drone targeted wheat silos southwest of Kobane, “destroying a large quantity of stocks”, the US-backed and Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces said.

The SDF are the Kurds’ de facto army in northeastern Syria.

Suppressed for decades, the Kurds took advantage of the weakness of Assad’s government during Syria’s civil war that erupted after he suppressed anti-government protests in 2011. The Kurds then proclaimed their own autonomous region in the north.

Turkey backs the rulers now in power in Syria after they toppled Assad.

But Ankara views the SDF as a terrorist organisation because it is dominated by the YPG, a Kurdish group it says is linked to PKK who have fought a decades-long insurgency on Turkish soil.

Ankara is hoping Syria’s new rulers from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham will take steps to address the issue of Kurdish fighters in the north.

A Turkish defence ministry source said on Thursday that Ankara would push ahead with its military preparations until Kurdish fighters “disarm”, stressing the ongoing threat along its border with Syria.

The Turkish army insists it never targets civilians but only terrorist groups.

On Thursday, a Turkish drone killed two journalists from Turkey’s Kurdish-majority southeast while covering clashes between Ankara-backed and Kurdish fighters near the Tishrin Dam south of Kobane, journalists’ groups said.

On Saturday, the Observatory reported the deaths of 14 pro-Turkey fighters in “fierce fighting” with the SDF, also near the dam.

Concern has grown over a possible Turkish assault on the Kurdish-held border town of Kobane, also known as Ain al-Arab, after pro-Turkish fighters seized Manbij and Tal Rifaat, two other key Kurdish-held towns.