Three Turkish soldiers were killed and one soldier was wounded after an attack by Islamic State militants on a tank in northern Syria on Friday, the Turkish army said in a statement.
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“Some groups of Syrian refugees are voluntarily leaving Turkey and settling in Syria’s Jarabulus, previously liberated from the IS militants as part of the Shield of the Euphrates operation”, AFAD said.
But Turkey on Tuesday sustained its biggest loss of life in the operation to date, with three soldiers killed in an IS rocket attack on their tanks.
Washington says Turkish attacks on Kurdish-aligned militias damage a USA -backed coalition that is fighting Islamic State.
Turkey’s Anadolu news agency said Erdogan told Putin that it was essential to agree to a ceasefire in Aleppo “as soon as possible”. Turkey’s own rebel allies are already spread out over a substantial stretch of occupied territory, and it’s doubtful Turkey is going to be willing to conduct the ground invasion primarily on their own, even if it’s obvious they’d prefer no operation to a Kurdish one. Turkey fears that a strong Kurdish entity in Syria would aid and embolden PKK fighters who have been fighting against the Turkish military for decades.
Turkey, in response, said it would continue to target the Kurdish militia if it failed to retreat east of the Euphrates River.
Four Turkish soldiers were injured on August 30 when a rocket fired from the west of Syria’s Jarablus region hit a tank in northern Syria.
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Some of those wounded in the attack on the northern town of Afrin were civilians, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a group that has researchers across the country.
