In north-western Syria, civilian settlement areas again came under fire from Turkish jihadist occupation forces on Saturday. The attacks were directed against the village of Soxanekê in the Sherawa district. It is unclear whether people have been harmed, as the bombardments continued sporadically.
Soxanekê is frequently targeted by the Turkish army and the proxy invasion corps SNA ("Syrian National Army") established by Ankara. Last week, at least ten shells from howitzers were fired at the village. A few days earlier, a forest area had been set on fire by occupation forces. Other villages in Sherawa are also bombed almost daily, most recently on Thursday. Even the village of Ziyaret, which borders Soxanekê and is home to the Veger IDP camp, is regularly bombed.
Strategic position of Sherawa
The district of Sherawa is located in the south-east of Afrin and is not fully occupied. The region occupies a strategic position in Turkey's plans for expanding its illegal occupation zone along the border, as Sherawa borders the canton of Shehba and connects Afrin with Tal Rifat. Should the Turkish state launch another war of aggression against the autonomous regions of northern and eastern Syria, as President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been repeatedly propagating for several weeks, Tal Rifat and Manbij are to be attacked first.