DAMASCUS (Dispatches) – Two Turkish soldiers were killed and four others wounded on Friday evening by a roadside bomb in Syria’s northwestern province of Idlib, a war monitor reported.
The bombing targeted Turkish military vehicles near the Maarrat Misrin area in the northern countryside of Idlib, said the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The attack came after a Turkish-backed militant group arrested another militant from a rival group in Idlib, the Britain-based watchdog added.
A total of six Turkish soldiers have been killed over the past 35 days in the region by a militant group fighting against the Turkish forces and Turkey-backed militants.
On Sunday also, a guided missile was launched from Tel Rifaat in Aleppo by U.S.-backed Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) militants, killing two Turkish police officers and wounding two others, according to Ankara.
The Turkish forces support multiple militant groups in northern Syria, mainly in the provinces of Idlib and Aleppo.
The development comes as Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened to launch a new military campaign on Syria.
“We have run out of patience regarding certain areas in Syria that have been the source of terrorist attacks on our country. We are determined to eliminate the threats originating from those areas,” Erdogan said Friday, referring to Kurdish-held city of Tel Rifaat, located near the city of Azaz in the country’s Aleppo province, where the attack took place earlier this week.
Erdogan’s threat came as two unknown Turkish officials also said Ankara was preparing for possible military action against the YPG in northern Syria if talks on the issue with the United States and Russia failed.
“It is essential that the areas, notably the Tel Rifaat region from which attacks are constantly carried out against us, are cleansed,” one senior official was quoted as saying by Reuters.
The official added that the military and national intelligence agency MIT was making preparations, without providing any details about the time and nature of the Turkish military action.
“The decision for this has been taken and the necessary coordination will be done with particular countries. This subject will be discussed with Russia and the United States,” he stressed.
Ankara views the YPG as a terrorist organization tied to the homegrown Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been seeking an autonomous Kurdish region in Turkey since 1984.
The Kurdish-led administration in northeastern Syria says the Turkish offensive has killed hundreds of civilians, including dozens of children since it started.
The Damascus government has repeatedly slammed violations of the Arab country’s sovereignty, calling on the Turkish military to withdraw its forces and end its occupation of the Syrian soil.