Yesterday, six civilians, among them a journalist and a member of the Art and Culture Committee of Cizîrê Region, were killed and 42 others injured in a car bomb attack in the Qamishlo city. On the same day, Armenian Catholic priest Hovsep Petoyan and his father Abraham Petoyan were shot dead in their car while travelling on the road between Hesekê and Deir ez-Zor in north-eastern Syria. The terrorist organization ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack.

The Autonomous Administration of Northern and Eastern Syria strongly condemned the attacks and held the Turkish state responsible for the resulting deaths, saying; "The goal of these attacks is the same as that of the Turkish invasion.”

Remarking that the Turkish state prevented the eradication of ISIS terror, the statement of the Autonomous Administration said that jihadist mercenary groups took advantage of this and started to carry out attacks.

The statement pointed out that all the peoples and faith groups in the region were under threat due to the invasion attacks of the Turkish state, adding; “The Assyrian and Syriac peoples living in Til Temir are faced with the massacres of the Turkish state and their mercenaries. While Turkey's attacks on Christian population in the region continue, priest Hosvep Petoyan Bidoyan and his father Abraham Petoyan were murdered by the ISIS."

The autonomous administration expressed their condolences to the Armenian population and the families of the martyrs and called on the international coalition to intensify the fight against Turkey's aggression against northern Syria and the ISIS cells reactivated thanks to the Turkish invasion.