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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In a statement on Friday, the Turkish military said one of its tanks was hit by ISIS fighters around 12:20 local time, near the Syrian town of Tel el-Hawa.
The new fatalities come after three Turkish soldiers were killed in a rocket attack by IS this week.
Operation Euphrates Shield was launched on August 24 when Free Syrian Army forces backed by Turkish military liberated Jarablus from Daesh.
Last week, ISIS fighters were expelled from their last positions along the Turkish-Syrian border, depriving the group of a key crossing point for recruits and supplies.
Turkey invaded northern Syria late last month, with an eye toward securing a 90-km strip of the border for the rebel faction.
Meanwhile, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Friday that he welcomed Turkey’s efforts against ISIL in northern Syria without mentioning its clashes with Kurdish fighters in the same region.
Turkey can set up a camp in the Syrian territories liberated from the “Islamic State” (IS, aka ISIS, ISIL or Daesh) terrorists and resettle Syrian refugees there after creation of a safe zone, the Turkish Office for Prevention and Elimination of Consequences of Emergency (AFAD) told Trend on September 9.
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“Our wish is our Syrian brothers’ safe return to their own country after it is cleansed of Daesh and the formation of locations where they can live comfortably and feel safe”, he said at an opening ceremony in Turkey’s northwestern province of Kocaeli province. The terrorists were cleared from most of Syria’s border with Turkey following the operation.
