Turkey’s Defense Ministry said one of its soldiers was martyred and two were injured by Syrian government shelling, the latest fatality after 33 Turkish troops were killed in an airstrike in Syria earlier this week, Associated Press reports.
The announcement late Friday also said Turkish forces hit Syrian government targets and a number of Syrian troops were “neutralized.”
Syrian government forces have been on a weekslong offensive into Idlib province, the country’s last rebel stronghold, which borders Turkey. Thousands of Turkish soldiers are deployed inside rebel-controlled areas of Idlib province, which is dominated by al-Qaida-linked militants.
On Thursday, at least 33 Turkish soldiers were killed in airstrikes in Idlib blamed on the Syrian government.
The deaths — the highest number in a single day since Turkey first intervened in Syria in 2016 — were the most serious escalation between Turkish and Russian-backed Syrian forces. It’s raised the prospect of an all-out war with millions of Syrian civilians trapped in the middle.
It remained unclear whether Syrian or Russian jets carried out the strike, but Russia denied its aircraft were responsible.