Around 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, 18th January 2025, Turkish drones allegedly struck a civilian gathering at the Tishreen Dam, south of Manbij in the Aleppo countryside of Syria, killing six identified civilians, including a well-known Kurdish actor and a playwright, and a woman, and injuring 20 others, including a child and an elderly man.

Hawar News reported the incident at 16:28 local time, emphasizing that the Turkish drone attack happened two hours before, killing four civilians and injuring 15, some of them seriously. Initial statements by the Democratic Autonomous Administration and local outlets echoed this report, indicating the same death and injury toll.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights documented three civilians killed and 14 injured at first; by 19th January, SOHR reported that three of the wounded had died of their injuries, raising the death toll to six, including a woman, with more than ten others still wounded.

The Martyrs’ Families Council in Qamishli revealed the names of five of the citizens who had been killed at the Tishreen Dam, all of them residents of Qamishli: Akram Rakho, Kayfo Othman (Abu Hawkar), Muzaffar Ramadan (Abu Youssef), Abdul Qader Ibrahim, and a woman, Manija Haidar (Haco). According to Hawar News, the victims had headed to Tishreen Dam on January 17, accompanied by dozens of citizens to take shifts at the dam, in order to protect it from the attacks by the Turkish military and affiliated militias.

The sources added a collage of the victim’s photos. Akram Rakho was a middle-aged man with grey hair and a black moustache, dressed in a black shirt. Kayfo Osman was also a middle-aged man with a grey moustache, wearing glasses and dressed in a white shirt and a black suit. Manija Haidar, pictured in the middle of the collage, was a middle-aged woman pictured wearing a beige pullover and a beige hijab. Muzaffar Muhammad was an elderly man with grey hair, a grey moustache, and deep-set eyes, wearing a grey shirt and a black leather jacket. Abdul Qader Ibrahim was a young man with a clean-shaven face, wearing a white shirt, a black suit, and a striped tie.

On 19th January, Hawar News and Arta FM reported that the 67-year-old Kurdish comedian, actor and playwright Jumaa Khalil Ibrahim (“Bavi Tayyar”) succumbed to wounds sustained in the 18th January attack in a hospital in Tabqa. According to Arta. FM,  Bavi Tayyar began his artistic career in 1998, becoming one of the most prominent faces in Kurdish comedy art. Kobani Al Hadath noted that the five casualties were “friends of Jumaa” from Qamishli.

Hawar News also dedicated a report to the late Jumaa Ibrahim, writing that he was born in 1957 in Qamishli and had a long history in Kurdish theater, having prepared hundreds of plays since the nineties until today, urging the national spirit and defense of the homeland and the cause. The media outlet shared an image of the late Jumaa, where he was seen as an elderly man, sitting in a chair, with grey hair and a grey moustache, wearing a grey polo T-shirt. Kobani Al Hadath also mourned the death of “the actor, artist, national figure and hero”, sharing his image where he is seen smiling, wearing a pink T-shirt.

Hospital records cited by Hawar News listed the names of 21 civilians injured, including Jumaa Ibrahim, who died the next day: Rojda Najmuddin Othman, Abdul Karim Muhammad Abdo, Siyaband Suleiman, Obaid Ali, Munther Yousef Hassan, Abdul Karim Muhammad, Khalil Hussein, Baqer Chiyan, Muhammad Amin Darwish Ali, Ghassan Ali, Laila Muhammad, Rifa Samir, Ahmed Abdi, Fawaz Hassan, Abdul Razzaq Muhammad, Wadha al-Asmar, Fares Khalaf, Shireen Hussein, Hassan Abdul Qader Hassan, and Amer Fawaz Suleiman.

The post was accompanied by a number of images. One image showed an elderly man with grey hair and a grey moustache lying on a hospital bed, covered with a thick brown blanket and connected to an IV. An additional image of the same man showed the bandage on his right arm and his stomach. The third image showed a boy with a head injury, wearing a grey pullover and a dark scarf, sitting in a wheelchair.

Local posts and statements added that many of the victims injured had also travelled from Qamishli to “take shifts” at the dam to help protect it amidst ongoing bombardment in the area of the Qarqozak Bridge and Tishreen Dam. The Democratic Autonomous Administration, Hawar News (ANHA), North Press (NPA), Ronahi TV and RojNews described the strike as targeting residents and on-duty workers gathered on the dam.

Reporting on the incident, Arta FM shared an image on its Facebook account where a huge cloud of dark smoke is seen rising on the horizon.

The Facebook account Kobani Al Hadath shared a video showing the first moments after the strike with widespread panic and chaos. People were carrying the injured with their hands or on blankets.

Where sources identified the perpetrator, all attributed responsibility to the Turkish military.