BEIRUT: A war monitor said a senior commander from the security forces in northeast Syria鈥檚 semi-autonomous Kurdish-led administration was killed on Tuesday in a blast near a prison in Hasakah province.
鈥淎 commander in the Kurdish security forces was killed and another person was wounded鈥� in an explosion near the prison in Umm Farsan on the outskirts of the city of Qamishli 鈥渁t the same time as a Turkish drone was flying in the area,鈥� the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The commander in the Asayish security forces had played 鈥渁 prominent role in leading military operations against the Daesh group in Raqqa province,鈥� a former bastion of the jihadists in Syria, said the Britain-based Observatory.
A local Kurdish news agency reported 鈥渢he sound of an explosion... resulting from the targeting of a car鈥� in the area.
The incident came a day after Syria鈥檚 Kurdish authorities in Hasakah province released 50 Syrian prisoners accused of belonging to Daesh as part of a general amnesty deal, an official had told AFP.
The Kurds have established a semi-autonomous administration spanning swathes of the north and northeast.
The US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces spearheaded the battle that dislodged Daesh group militants from their last scraps of Syrian territory in 2019.
Turkiye sees the Kurdish People鈥檚 Protection Units (YPG), which dominate the SDF, as an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers鈥� Party (PKK), which it considers a 鈥渢errorist鈥� group.
The Turkish army, which has troops and proxies in northern Syria, regularly carries out strikes in Kurdish-held areas.
Turkiye controls two large strips of territory along the border after expelling Kurdish forces in successive campaigns.