'YPG/PKK aims to create chaos in Syria with car bomb attacks'

The PKK/YPG terrorist group aims to create an atmosphere of “chaos and disorder” with its bomb attacks mostly against civilians in northern Syria, according to a report published by an Ankara-based policy think-tank.

The report published by Turkey’s Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research (SETA) examined 26 suicide attacks and 51 car bombings by the PKK in Turkey between 2014 and 2018 as well as 192 car bombings by the YPG in areas controlled by the Syrian Interim Government between 2018 and 2021.

In its more than 35-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK – listed as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the US and the European Union – has been responsible for the deaths of some 40,000 people, including women, children and infants. The YPG is its Syrian branch.

READ MORE: YPG/PKK attack on hospital in Syria's Afrin kills many patients

According to the report titled “The Logic of YPG Car Bomb Attacks in Syria - A Strategy of Chaos and Disorder”, the YPG in its 192 car bombings in Syria, killed a total of 372 people and injured 1,287 others. 

Only 25 YPG car bombings occurred without any casualties, while the peak in deaths was recorded in April last year, with 42 casualties, the report added.

Three main goals

“The use of car bombs is part of a concerted YPG strategy since the Operation Olive Branch was conducted by the Syrian National Army and the Turkish Armed Forces,” the report said.

“The YPG's terror campaign aims to create chaos and disorder,” it noted.

According to the report, by doing so, the YPG aims to achieve three goals.

First, “to force the governing body to implement harsher security measures and drive the people away from governance.”

The second is “to prevent the return of Syrians to Syria in order to preserve their prospect of a Marxist Kurdish statelet in Northern Syria reaching from Iraq to the Mediterranean.”

And lastly, “to portray their areas as relatively more secure than the areas held by the Syrian Interim Government.”

READ MORE: Several dead in YPG/PKK car bomb attack at market in Syria's Afrin