Two Turkish soldiers were killed and two wounded in northern Syria, from which Turkey is trying to drive out jihadists and Kurdish rebels, the Turkish Defense Ministry said on Sunday.
A report further states that “terrorists” on Saturday attacked a Turkish military vehicle occupying the region south of the Turkish-Syrian border following the “Euphrates Shield” attack that began in 2016. Tweet the ministry without further details.
Ankara qualifies as Syrian Kurdish fighters “terrorists” as Islamic State (IS) militants and Turkish soldiers try to flee the area, including the cities of Jaraplus and al-Bab.
In the aftermath of Saturday’s attack, the ministry reiterated without providing further information that “terrorist targets had been attacked” in retaliation.
Turkey has led three military offensives in northern Syria since 2016, allowing it to control more than 2,000 km2 of territory, particularly in the Afrin region, one of the regions of the self-proclaimed Kurdish “federal” region.
The arms and support of many Western countries, including the United States and France, have been instrumental in the Kurdish militias (YPGs) of the People’s Security Forces in the region playing a key role in the fight against ISIS in Syria.
But Ankara qualifies the group as a “terrorist” because of its close ties to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been waging a bloody guerrilla war in Turkey since 1984, killing more than 40,000 people.
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