BEIRUT: A war monitor said a senior commander from the security forces in northeast Syria’s semi-autonomous Kurdish-led administration was killed on Tuesday in a blast near a prison in Hasakeh province.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Tuesday said a commander in the Kurdish security forces was killed and another person was injured in an explosion near the prison in Umm Fursan on the outskirts of the city of Qamishli.
The Britain-based Observatory said the commander in the Asayish security forces had played a significant role in leading military operations against the Islamic State group in Raqa province.
The Asayish in a statement said that one of its commanders was killed in Qamishli after a Turkish military drone targeted one of its vehicles at a detention centre in Umm Fursan.
The Turkish defence ministry said it had no information about the attack.
An official had told media that the incident came a day after Syria’s Kurdish authorities in Hasakeh province freed 50 Syrian prisoners accused of belonging to the IS group as part of a general amnesty deal
The Kurds have setup a semi-autonomous administration spanning swathes of the north and northeast of Syria. The US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces led the battle that dislodged IS militants.
Turkey views the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), as an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which it considers a terrorist group.
The Turkish army, which has troops in northern Syria, regularly conducts strikes in Kurdish-held areas.
Turkey controls two large areas of territory along the border after expelling Kurdish forces in successive campaigns.
