Thousands of people in the town of Ain Issa in northern Syria are still without electricity after heavy artillery attacks by the Turkish army and mercenaries from the jihadist group SNA. The entire city centre and neighbouring villages are affected. Villages in the city of Girê Spî (Tal Abyad), which is located further north of Ain Issa and has been occupied by Turkey since 2019, are also cut off from energy supply.

It was initially unclear exactly how many households currently have no access to electricity. The power outage occurred late Monday evening after a substation near the city centre was deliberately bombed by Turkish and jihadist occupation troops. A service team from the power company is on the scene to repair the damage. It is not yet possible to say when the repairs will be completed ‘due to the risk of further attacks’.

The town of Ain Issa is located south of the Turkish-occupied region around Girê Spî and is of strategic importance as a link between the cantons of Euphrates and Cizîrê. Since 2019, the town, which is located on the important M4 road, has been in the crosshairs of Turkey and its Islamist proxy troops as part of a war of attrition, with phases of high intensity alternating with phases of low intensity. Dozens of villages in the region have already been destroyed and depopulated by Turkish military violence.

Furthermore, several Turkish air offensives in recent years have reduced large parts of Ain Issa's infrastructure to rubble. Although intentional attacks on civilian infrastructure constitute a war crime under international law, there has been no international outcry. In recent weeks, there have also been massacres of the civilian population in villages near Ain Issa. Turkish drones had targeted residential areas, killing at least 20 civilians, including several children. At the end of last week, the military council of Raqqa, an affiliate of the Syrian Democratic Forces (QSD), had prevented an SNA breakthrough attempt in Ain Issa.