ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - At least 11 civilians, including six children, were killed in a suspected Turkish airstrike near the Kurdish-held town of Ain Issa, Raqqa province, in northern Syria on Monday morning, a war monitor reported.

"Eleven civilians, including six children, all members of the same family, were killed in a Turkish drone strike on a house in the [Syrian Democratic Forces] SDF-controlled village of al-Mustariha in Ain Issa countryside in northern Raqqa,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said.

Monday’s deadly airstrikes on Ain Issa come amid intensifying clashes in recent days between the US-backed, Kurdish-led SDF forces and Turkish-backed Syrian opposition groups, as rebel groups spearheaded by the Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) took over Damascus, ending the 24-year rule of Bashar al-Assad.

Today’s attack also coincided with the takeover of the city of Manbij, northeast of Aleppo, by the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) from the SDF control, Rami Abdulrahman, head of SOHR confirmed to The New Region.

The US-backed Kurdish forces currently control the bulk of northeastern and eastern regions of Syria, amounting to a quarter territory of the country. Formed in 2015, the SDF is considered the Kurdish de facto army in Syria.

Turkey has carried out over 190 airstrikes on regions controlled by Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration in North and East Syria (AANES) since the start of 2024, according to SOHR.

Turkish warplanes routinely attack the SDF-held areas in Rojava. Turkey considers the People’s Defense Units (YPG), which is the backbone of the SDF, as inextricably linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), however, the YPG insists that they merely subscribe to similar ideology.

The PKK is an armed group that has fought for increased Kurdish rights in Turkey for decades. The group is designated a terrorist organization by Ankara.