The SDF media office stated the shelling occurred across a 280 km area from south of Afrin to Manbij, Kobani and villages in Ain Isa.

The bombardments caused damage to a number of uninhabited homes but no casualties were reported, North Press Agency said.

Turkey’s defense ministry said on Thursday the operation was in response to an attack by the People’s Protection Units (YPG), the main component of the SDF, on Karkamis district and a border post in Turkey’s Gaziantep province, according to Anadolu Agency (AA).

The ministry initially said four Turkish soldiers and a civilian were wounded in an attack from the YPG coming from Kobane, and later announced one Turkish soldier was injured from a mortar attack.

A statement from the ministry claimed 21 YPG members were killed in the operation in Kobane, which the SDF denied in a statement from their media office.

The SDF also denied Turkey’s report that the group shelled the border region at Karkamis, stating, "Our forces have nothing to do with the mentioned attack,” calling the incident a "false flag operation to launch attacks against the north and eastern regions of Syria.”

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said Turkish forces shelled the Syrian regime’s military positions near two villages in the countryside of Kobane on Thursday, as well as a number of villages in the countryside in the area of Manbij.

The war monitor said on Thursday there were reports from their activists on exchanges of mortar fire from Turkish forces as well as coming from areas held by regime forces and the SDF in the area of Jarablus across the border from Karkamis, north of Aleppo.

Reporter's code: 50101