Turkish drone strike kills three in northeast Syria— Kurdish official

QAMISHLI, Syria — A Turkish drone strike killed three employees of northeast Syria's semi-autonomous Kurdish administration on Tuesday, a spokesman said, amid a recent uptick in attacks targeting Kurdish-held areas.

The strike targeted "a vehicle transporting civilian employees, killing two Kurdish women and a Christian" man, said Farhad Shami, spokesman for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the administration's de facto army.

A fourth employee was wounded, he added.

The US-supported SDF led the battle that dislodged Daesh group fighters from the last scraps of their Syrian territory in 2019.

Ankara considers the People's Protection Units (YPG), which dominate the SDF, to be an offshoot of the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), designated as a terrorist group by Turkey and its Western allies.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said Tuesday's strike hit a vehicle on a road between the cities of Qamishli and Amuda, along the Turkish border.

The Britain-based monitor said Turkish drone strikes have killed 39 people in Kurdish-held areas this year, including seven civilians and 29 SDF or allied fighters.

Sixteen people died in a single day earlier this month, the observatory previously reported.

Shami however gave a higher civilian death toll of 21 killed in Turkish drone strikes this year, including five children.

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

Syria's 12-year war broke out after President Bashar Assad's repression of peaceful anti-government demonstrations escalated into a deadly conflict that pulled in foreign powers and global extremists.

The conflict has killed more than half-a-million people and displaced millions.