Here’s a list of strikes that Turkey has carried out either independently or with US/Coalition forces in and around Aleppo. These are all from this month (so far) and include air and drone strikes as well as artillery and rocket attacks. They are all confirmed by the Turkish government run Anadolu Agency:
• 1st May: 2 killed in US Predator drone strikes launched from the Incirlik air base. [http://goo.gl/kXTlMa]
• 2nd May: 29 killed by US drones and 34 by Turkish military howitzers and rockets. [http://goo.gl/9b1Zab]
• 3rd May: 13 killed by Turkish drones and artillery fire. [http://goo.gl/72DvsC]
• 4th May: 3 killed by Turkish shelling. [http://goo.gl/Ze5Egb]
• 7th May: F-16, F-15 and A-10 Coalition warplanes killed 48. [http://goo.gl/2S7T0f]
• 8th May: 55 killed by Turkish multiple-launch rocket systems. [http://goo.gl/9CWMfL]
• 12th May: 14 killed by Turkish artillery fire and 14 more killed in 5 separate Turkish airstrikes. [http://goo.gl/bhtTHa]
• 14th May: 45 killed in joint Coalition air strikes and Turkish artillery fire. [http://goo.gl/hGSZtt]
• 16th May: 27 killed by combined Turkish shelling and Coalition air strikes. [http://goo.gl/w9F2ii]
The total is close to 300 confirmed dead. That’s just from these operations over the last 3 or so weeks and conducted by or with Turkish forces. This is not even to look at all the hundreds of other strikes and attacks that have been carried out by other forces.
The Turkish government uses the same excuse as America, Russia, Iran, the UK, Saudi and even “Israel” when it comes to these attacks – they’re fighting “the terrorists”. In fact, Erdogan himself recently boasted of Turkey having killed 3000 “militants” [http://goo.gl/XASWTZ].
Muslims rightly scoff at other nations saying they’re fighting the terrorists because we know that those who suffer most are the innocent civilians caught in the crossfire; should not a similar standard be applied with Turkey?
Turkey is (very) significantly contributing to the death, destruction and chaos in the region. It is by no means innocently looking out for the interests of the Syrians, but rather is directly complicit in their misery.
– Hamzah Qureshi
