2 Turkish soldiers killed in attack in northern Syria

Turkish soldiers stand guard during a joint Russian-Turkish patrol in the eastern countryside of the town of Darbasiyah near the border with Turkey in Syria’s northeastern Hasakah province on December 7, 2020 [DELIL SOULEIMAN/AFP via Getty Images]

Two Turkish soldiers were killed and two were wounded in an attack on their armoured vehicle in northern Syria, and Turkish forces immediately launched retaliatory fire, Turkey’s defence ministry said on Saturday, reported Reuters.

“Our punitive fire against terrorist positions is continuing,” the statement on Twitter on said.

It said the attack was in the region where Turkey launched the cross-border “Euphrates Shield” operation in 2016 to drive away Daesh militants and the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia.

Media reports said the attack was in the al-Bab area.

Turkey continues to hold sway in northwest Syria and has a significant military presence there.

Turkey regards the YPG as a terrorist group linked to militants who have fought a decades-old insurgency against the state in southeast Turkey. It has staged several incursions into Syria in support of Syrian rebels to push the YPG from the Turkish frontier.

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