Turkish Soldier Killed by YPG in Northern Syria

Date: 30 April 2019 - 21:56

News ID: ۶۵۴۳۶

ISTANBUL (Dispatches) – One Turkish soldier was killed and three were slightly wounded in northern Syria on Tuesday during an attack by the Kurdish YPG militia, Turkey’s Defense Ministry said.
The attack took place in a region where Turkey carried out a cross-border operation dubbed Euphrates Shield in 2016 to allegedly drive Daesh terrorists and the YPG from its border with Syria. Turkey regards the U.S.-backed YPG as a terrorist organization.
The defense ministry statement said the Turkish army opened fire in retaliation against YPG targets. It did not give further details on the whereabouts of the attack.
The incident came a day after Turkish military aircraft "neutralized” more than a dozen members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militant group after carrying out a string of airstrikes against a terrorist hideout in Iraq's northern Kurdistan region.
Colonel Tamer Zincir, an official with the Turkish Defense Ministry, told reporters in the capital Ankara on Monday that the fighter jets had conducted airstrikes against a cave in the Zap region of northern Iraq late on Sunday, and "neutralized” 14 PKK militants in the process.
The Turkish military generally uses the term "neutralize" to signify that the militants were killed, captured or surrendered.
Meanwhile, the Turkish Defense Ministry, in a message published on its official Twitter page, said Turkish fighter jets had hit designated targets in the Haftanin regions of northern Iraq.
Shelters and ammunition depots used by PKK terrorists were destroyed as a result.
PKK militants regularly clash with Turkish forces in the Kurdish-dominated southeast of Turkey attached to northern Iraq.
Turkey, along with the European Union and the United States, has declared the PKK a terrorist group and banned it. The militant group has been seeking an autonomous Kurdish region since 1984.
A shaky ceasefire between the PKK and the Turkish government collapsed in July 2015. Attacks on Turkish security forces have soared ever since.
Over the past few months, Turkish ground and air forces have been carrying out operations against PKK positions in the country as well as in northern Iraq and neighboring Syria.
More than 40,000 people have been killed during the three-decade conflict between Turkey and the autonomy-seeking militant group.