Two more Turkish troops were killed on Tuesday by an explosion while taking part in Ankara’s unprecedented military operation inside Syria, state media said.
The state-run Anadolu news agency said the soldiers were killed by a mine north of the Syrian town of Jarabulus, which pro-Ankara militants had seized from ISIL Takfiri insurgents in the early stage of the operation.
They were taken over the border to hospital in the southeastern Turkish city of Gaziantep but died of their injuries, it said. The soldiers had been helping to build a security wall aimed at firming Ankara’s control of the border.
It was not clear who was behind the blast and how long ago the mine had been planted.
The latest deaths bring to 10 the number of Turkish soldiers killed since Turkey began its so-called “Euphrates Shield” operation to secure the Syrian border area on August 24, the Dogan news agency said.
Most of them have been killed by ISIL but one was killed in an attack blamed on the People’s Protection Units (YPG) Kurdish militia, which is also targeted in the offensive.
Source: AFP
