Turkish strike kills Kurdish women fighters in north Syria as Erdogan vows more attacks

Two members of a Kurdish women's militia in northern Syria were killed in a Turkish intelligence agency operation earlier this week, Turkish security sources reportedly said Friday.

Rodin Abdulkadir Muhammed, otherwise known as Ronahi Kobani, and Ranya Henan, known as Dilar Halep, were killed in the operation, the sources told the Turkish state-owned Anadolu Agency.

The sources said the two fighters were members of the Women's Protection Units (YPJ), a Kurdish militia that falls under the umbrella of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

The YPJ said on Thursday that three of its members had been killed in the attack - the two women named by the Turkish security sources, and a teenager who was known by the mononym Kobani.

The militia said the three fighters were killed in a drone strike on a car in the Kurdish-majority town of Kobani in northern Syria on Wednesday.

Elsewhere in northern Syria, an Assyrian militia member was killed in shelling of villages near the town of Tel Tamr by Turkish-backed Syrian groups, said the Rojava Information Centre, a local monitor.

The bombing of northern Syria comes as Erdogan vowed earlier this week that Turkey would keep conducting cross-border operations.

"We do not hesitate to take steps for the elimination of terrorism and the security of both Syria and the north of Iraq," he told members of his Justice and Development Party (AKP) on Monday.

That same day, Turkey launched a new offensive in the Kurdish north of Iraq targeting the Kurdistan Workers' Party, a rebel group that has fought a decades-long war with Ankara for greater Kurdish autonomy in Turkey.

Turkey considers the YPJ to be a Syrian offshoot of the PKK.