TURKEY escalated its military aggression against Kurdish populations today morning with air strikes targeting two settlements in the Afrin region of northern Syria.

The missiles struck Meranaz and Malikiye at about 9.10am, according to local sources, who said that no casualties had been reported.

A Turkish drone also destroyed a house in the city of Kobani where jailed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan had briefly stayed after he fled Turkey ahead of the 1980 military coup.

Turkish jets also pummelled civilian targets in Iraqi Kurdistan’s Duhok province on Thursday night, causing residents to flee in panic.

NRT TV reporter Nihad Oramari said that the bombardment took place close to residential areas in the Kani Masi district of the northern governate.

Ankara’s military operations have escalated following the start of Operation Claw-Eagle last June, which it claimed targeted PKK bases around the Turkey-Iraq border.

But the first missiles struck the Makhmour refugee camp and a number of sites in Shengal, the site of a 2014 genocide of Yazidi people at the hands of Isis.

Turkey regularly carries out air raids on civilian populations, ignoring warnings from Baghdad against violations of its sovereignty.