31 March 2019 - 21:51

Turkish soldier killed in Syria

<p style="text-align: left;">One Turkish soldier was killed and another was wounded in a mortar attack on their position in northwest Syria on Sunday and Turkey&rsquo;s military launched retaliatory fire, the Turkish Defense Ministry said.

It said the attack was carried out by the Kurdish YPG fighters in the Afrin region, where Turkey-backed Syrian rebels drove out YPG fighters last year, Reuters reported.

“After the incident, targets identified as belonging to terrorists were subject to fire,” the ministry said in a statement. Ankara says the YPG is a terrorist group and an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which is labelled as a terrorist organization in Turkey.

The ministry published a photo of the soldier who was killed on its Twitter feed.

The YPG has been a key ally of the United States in its fight against Islamic State in Syria.

Reporter’s code: 50101

News Code 36046