Seven protesters killed in north Syria clashes with Turkish forces

AZAZ, Syria (AFP): Clashes between armed protesters and guards of Turkish positions in Syria’s north killed seven people, a medical source and a war monitor said Tuesday in a revised toll.

The protests Monday in the Turkish-controlled border strip followed a rampage a day earlier against Syrian businesses and properties in central Turkiye, where a Syrian man had been accused of harassing a child.

“Seven protesters have been killed… during exchanges of fire with people guarding Turkish positions,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Six were killed in the city of Afrin and one in Jarablus, said the British-based monitor with a network of sources inside Syria.

It did not specify whether the protesters killed were armed or not.

A medical source in northern Syria also told AFP seven people had been killed in the violence.

Calm prevailed on Tuesday morning, AFP correspondents in the area said.

On Monday, hundreds of Syrians demonstrated throughout the Ankara-controlled area, with some armed protesters attacking Turkish trucks and military posts, and taking down Turkish flags.

Some even attempted to storm crossing points, clashing with Turkish border guards.

According to the Syrian Observatory, four border crossings with Turkiye have been shut in the wake of the violence.

The protests also extended to the rebel-held Idlib region, near the Turkish-controlled area, an AFP correspondent and the Observatory said.

Earlier Tuesday, Turkish authorities said they detained 474 people after the anti-Syrian riots.

Since 2016, Turkiye has carried out successive ground operations to expel Kurdish forces from border areas of northern Syria.

Pro-Turkish forces in Syria now control two vast strips of territory along the border.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan supported early rebel efforts to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad at the start of the war in 2011.

But he has reversed course in recent years, with top officials from both countries meeting in Russian-mediated talks.

On Friday, Erdogan had pointed to a possible meeting with Assad, saying it was “not impossible.”

Turkiye, which hosts some 3.2 million Syrian refugees, has been shaken several times by bouts of xenophobic violence in recent years, often triggered by rumors spreading on social media and instant messaging applications.