Thousands protest Turkish strikes on Kurdish groups in Syria

Thousands of Kurds protested in the Syrian city of Qamishli against Turkish cross-border strikes targeting Kurdish groups in the country's northeast.

One week ago Türkiye began a barrage of air strikes against the semi-autonomous Kurdish zones in north and northeastern Syria, and across the border in Iraq.

It has also threatened a ground offensive in those areas of Syria.

The strikes came after a November 13 bombing in Istanbul that killed six people and wounded 81 and that Ankara blamed on the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which it and its Western allies consider a terrorist group.

The PKK has waged an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984. Türkiye alleges that Syrian Kurdish fighters are the PKK's allies.

Kurdish groups denied any involvement in the Ankara blast.

Demonstrators in Kurdish-controlled Qamishli in Hasakah province brandished photos of people killed during the last strikes in the semi-autonomous region.

They carried Kurdish flags alongside photos of PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan -- jailed in Türkiye since 1999 -- and protesters shouted slogans against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

They also chanted in favour of the resistance in "Rojava" -- the name Kurds in Syria give to the area they administer.

The Turkish raids have killed at least 58 Kurdish fighters and Syrian soldiers, as well as a Kurdish journalist, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has an extensive network of sources in Syria.