Turkish-backed militants set fire to farms in northeastern Syria: SANA
Turkish-backed Takfiri militants have burned wide areas of agricultural lands in Syria’s northeastern province of Hasakah, reports say.
Syria’s official news agency SANA, citing local sources, reported that the acts of arson took place in several villages of Tal Tamer and Abu-Rasin regions of the Kurdish-populated province on Sunday when a group of militants attacked the areas.
Local residents and witnesses said that “fires spread quickly due to the winds and burned more than 20,000 dunums (20,000,000 square meters) of wheat and barley fields which are still burning till now and spreading to burn more farms”.
The attack comes less than a week after many farms in the same region were brunt due to a series of mortar attacks by the Turkish-backed mercenaries.
On May 17, an American aircraft reportedly dropped thermal balloons over agricultural lands and farms in Hasakah, setting fire to wheat crops in the area. The targeted area was part of agricultural lands in the countryside of the town of al-Shaddadi.
The Ankara-backed militants were deployed to northeastern Syria last October after Turkish military forces launched a long-threatened cross-border invasion in a declared attempt to push fighters of the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) away from border areas.
Ankara views the US-backed YPG as a terrorist organization tied to the homegrown Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has been seeking an autonomous Kurdish region in Turkey since 1984.
The Kurdish-led administration in northeastern Syria says the Turkish offensive has killed hundreds of civilians, including dozens of children since it started.
In recent months, there has also been a surge in abductions in the areas where the Turkish-backed militants are present, particularly in the key border town of Ra's al-Ayn.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and other senior officials have said that the Damascus government will respond through all legitimate means available to the ongoing ground offensive by the Turkish forces and allied Takfiri militants against Kurdish forces in the northern part of the war-battered Arab country.
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