SOHR: Five people affiliated with SDF killed by Turkish drone strike in northeast Syria

Five people were killed by a Turkish drone strike on Friday near the town of Ain Issa, north of the city of Al Raqqa, where 15 people recently faced trial on charges of "spying for the Turkish intelligence," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported.

Three of the victims of the drone strike are members of local security forces and two are fighters of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), SOHR said.

Two vehicles near a checkpoint close to the headquarters of the 93rd Brigade, which houses Syrian troops and SDF fighters, were reportedly targeted by the drone strike.

In response to the attack, the SDF shelled Turkish positions near two villages in Ain Issa countryside, with no casualties reported.

The Turkish attack followed a trial in the SDF-held city of Al Raqqa, in which 15 suspects faced accusations of providing the Turkish intelligence with information on the whereabouts of officials and military figures of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) and the SDF, thus assisting Turkish forces in the assassination of AANES officials and SDF members.

While the suspects reportedly confessed to the court about their collaboration with Turkish forces, one suspect said that he recently made a deal with the Turkish intelligence for providing coordinates of the location of a senior SDF commander in Kobani (Ain Al-Arab) in return for $50,000.

The court issued death sentences on 13 suspects who confessed to spying for the Turkish intelligence, while the remaining two have not been convicted so far, as there is not enough evidence against them, SOHR said.