Turkey's Syria campaign sees more troops killed

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – Two Turkish soldiers were killed on Tuesday when an improvised explosive device (IED) detonated on the border with Syria.

The soldiers were on a mine-clearing mission as part of Turkey’s recent incursion into Syria near the village of Akcakoyunlu in the Gaziantep Province, according to military sources speaking to the private owned Turkish Dogan news agency.

Turkey was also reportedly building a border wall in the area.

Turkey’s Syria campaign, officially dubbed as the Operation Euphrates Shield, is meant to drive off the Islamic State (IS) group from the border and contain Kurdish forces’ territorial gains.

With the latest losses, the number of Turkish soldiers killed in the Euphrates Shield rose to 10 since its start on Aug. 24, according to officials.

The Free Syrian Army (FSA), supported by Turkey with tanks on the ground and warplanes above, captured the border town of Jarablus from IS in less than 24 hours facing little resistance from the insurgents.

Moreover, the FSA and Turkish army operations also target Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in southern Jarablus in an effort to dislodge the SDF to the east bank of the River Euphrates as Turkey demands.

The fighting between the US-backed SDF and Turkey-backed FSA has largely calmed down per repeated calls of the US administration that demands a focus on battling IS.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday his troops, and the FSA were now aiming to capture the city of al-Bab from IS in northern Aleppo, citing his country’s security concerns.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany

(Reporting by Ari Khalidi)