At least one civilians was killed and at least one other was injured by a declared Turkish airstrike in the city of Kobani on 28 January, 2025.

Azad Ali Muhammad was reported killed by all sources who named victims. However, sources diverged on the identity of the other victim. While many sources named Shiro Obaid Mashid as the second killed, some mentioned Azad’s wife, Nariman Suleiman, was killed. Others suggested she had been wounded and taken to hospital. One source reported that all three had been killed.

While the majority of local sources referred to Azad Ali as a civilian, Turkish state-run media Anatolu Agency quoted the Turkish National Intelligence Organization who announced that they had “neutralized” a so-called senior PKK/YPG terrorist in an operation in Syria’s Ayn al-Arab region,” adding that “Mahmut Agca, codenamed Azad, had been the organizer of the group’s terrorist activities carried out in Türkiye since 2015. The terror group member, who was identified as holding an organizational meeting in a house in Syria’s Ayn al-Arab, was neutralized in a pinpoint operation. Agca, who joined the organization in 2006, was among the planners of several terrorist attacks, including the one on Aug. 29, 2015, in Türkiye’s southeastern Sanliurfa province, where two police officers were martyred in an attack targeting a police car.” The reporting went on to additional allegations of terror attacks that Azad was involved in. Based on the conflicting information provided by sources, Azad has been counted as “contested” civilian/militant until further information comes to light.

Bas News stated that those killed were “a man and his wife,” contradicting most reports which reported the death of Azar and Shiro and injury of Nariman. Human Rights – Efrin also reported that Nariman was killed, and reported Shiro as injured. NPA News claimed “a man and a woman” were injured. Kobani Al Hadath reported that Shiro and Azad had been killed while “drinking coffee on the roof.” Activists Net reported all three as deceased.

Despite claiming that Azad and Nariman had been killed, Human Rights – Efrin posted a commemorative picture of two men; it is possible one of these men was instead injured. However, Bas News, quoting the Turkish Intelligence Service, reported one of the men in the photograph as the “Kobani official in the PKK,” Mahmoud Agca. Reports of Agca’s death were published five days after the incident, on 3 February. Bas quoted the Intelligence Service as stating that Agca had “participated in planning many terrorist operations that were carried out inside Turkish territory since 2015,” and that he had been a member of the PKK since 2006. He was killed “while attending a meeting of the organization in a house in the Kobani region.”

As with the civilian deaths, sources diverged on culpability. Hawar News, which reported Turkish involvement, shared photographic and video evidence of the infrastructural aftermath: a hole has been ripped into the ceiling of the home, and rubble litters the street. Hawar, quoting the General Command of the Internal Security Forces in North and East Syria, reported that the Turkish military had issued “two consecutive [drone] strikes on the residence.”

According to sources quoted by BasNews, the damage was wrought not by a Turkish drone, but a more quotidian problem: “a fuel tank exploded on the roof of a house.” These sources explicitly “denied that the explosion was caused by an airstrike.” In photographs shared by Bas and Facebook user Kobani Al Hadath, fire can be seen. However, since the Turkish National Intelligence Organization announced their involvement in this incident, the strike has been graded as a “likely strike”.