ISTANBUL: Three Turkish soldiers were killed and four wounded on Wednesday in a rocket attack by Islamic State (IS) militants in northern Syria, in the first deadly attack on Ankara s armed forces to be blamed on the jihadists in Turkey s cross-border incursion.
\nTurkey launched an unprecedented operation inside Syria on August 24. Dubbed Euphrates Shield, it backs pro-Ankara opposition fighters in the goal of rooting out IS jihadists and Kurdish militia from the border area.
\nA senior Turkish official said two soldiers were killed on the spot and five injured in the attack by IS.
\nOne of the wounded soldiers later died in hospital despite all attempts to save his life, lifting the death toll to three, an army statement quoted by NTV television said.
\nThe fatalities are the first of the Turkish operation inside Syria to be blamed on IS and Ankara s biggest single loss of life in the offensive to date.
\nTurkey had blamed the death of one soldier on August 28 in a similar attack on Kurdish militia.
\nThe army said in the statement carried by NTV television that the deaths came in a rocket attack on two Turkish tanks.
\nThe army said the attack took place in the village of Wuquf south of Al-Rai, where Turkish tanks opened a second front in their Syria operation at the weekend.
\nThe area is west of Jarabulus near the Turkish border which was retaken by pro-Ankara rebels at the start of the operation from jihadists.
\nTurkish television showed pictures of military helicopters flying across the border to take the wounded for treatment in Turkey.
\nSeparately, two pro-Ankara Syrian fighters were killed and two others wounded in clashes in the same region, the army statement added.
\nTurkey has so far hailed its operation as a success and IS jihadists were at the weekend expelled from their last positions along the Turkish-Syrian border, depriving the group of a key transit point for recruits and supplies.
\nTurkey wants to establish a safe zone in the 98-kilometre (61-mile) area stretching from Jarabulus to Azaz to the west. The government says this has been completely secured in the weekend s operation.
\nThe army also said on Wednesday “44 targets were struck 153 times with precision by Firtina howitzers in a region identified as belonging to terrorists,” adding that coalition warplanes also launched air raids on IS positions.
\nSyrian rebels, backed by coalition forces, retook two villages near Al-Rai, it added. “The operation is continuing in the region.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ISTANBUL: Three Turkish soldiers were killed and four wounded on Wednesday in a rocket attack by Islamic State (IS) militants in northern Syria, in the first deadly attack on Ankara s armed forces to be blamed on the jihadists in Turkey s cross-border incursion. Turkey launched an unprecedented operation inside Syria on August 24. Dubbed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3026,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3020","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n