Rebels linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, were apparently targeting a police checkpoint at Diyarbakir Airport, the Anadolu Agency said.
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Another 20 were killed and 25 wounded in air strikes near the town of Al-Amarneh, it said.
Syrian Kurdish forces have been among the bravest and most effective in the war against ISIS in Syria.
Turkey’s official Anadolu news agency said Turkish air strikes killed 25 Kurdish “terrorists” and destroyed five buildings used by the fighters in the Jarabulus area.
The Turkish military said it was showing the “utmost sensitivity” and taking “all necessary measures” to prevent damage to the local civilian population.
Regarding “the PYD (Democratic Union Party) terror group in Syria, we have just the same determination”, Erdogan said, referring to the main pro-Kurdish party in northern Syria and its YPG militia.
The strikes came as Syrian rebels backed by Turkey clashed with fighters opposed by Ankara at the village of al-Amarna, some 10 km south of the border town of Jarablus that was seized by the Turkey-backed rebels from IS this week. The indications now are that Manbij won’t be the end either, with intentions to continue to take territory even further south of that.
“These are areas that Turkey has asked the YPG to pull out of”.
The pro-Kurdish fighters said earlier Turkey had for the first time carried out airstrikes on its positions. But, so far Kurdish forces appear to have borne the brunt of Ankara’s incursion as it seeks to stop the Kurds controlling a swath of territory along its border. If confirmed, it would be the first Turkish airstrikes against Kurdish allied forces on Syrian soil.
The YPG, which is part of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) coalition fighting Daesh, claimed that artillery had been fired at a village neighboring Kobani on Friday night, and that YPG positions have also been fired upon by Turkish forces.
Ankara says the YPG has failed to stick to a promise made by its United States allies that the militia would move back east across the Euphrates River.
Ankara’s military intervention in Syria has added another dimension to the country’s complex multi-front war, a devastating conflict that has killed more than 290,000 people and forced millions from their homes since it began in March 2011. The conflict has since drawn in regional states and world powers.
The Observatory said dozens more were injured in the two strikes and the death toll was expected to rise.
Russia, which backs Assad’s forces, has endorsed the proposal.
The Syrian Observatory reported on Saturday that at least 16 people were killed when helicopters dropped explosives on a funeral in a rebel-held area of Aleppo. The groups also accused the SDF of using civilians as human shields during the fight for Amarnah.
Elsewhere in Syria, another group of residents was evacuated from the Damascus suburb of Daraya, part of a deal struck between Syrian rebels and the government following a grueling bombing campaign and four-year siege.
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Some 280 rebels, their families and wounded arrived Saturday morning in a village in the northern rebel-held Idlib province.
