Turkey troops witness surge in Syria casualties

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – Turkey’s Defense Minister Fikri Isik on Thursday announced the number of Turkish soldiers killed in clashes a day before with the Islamic State (IS) near the town of al-Bab in northern Syria rose to 16.

There were 33 others wounded, six of them in critical conditions because of an IS car bomb attack.

In an address to the Turkish National Assembly in Ankara, Isik said the operation in Syria dubbed as the Euphrates Shield was vital to prevent the formation of “a terror corridor” along the southern border.

The Turkish leadership uses the phrase to refer to the self-declared Kurdish autonomous region of Rojava.

On Wednesday, the initial number of Turkish casualties was four killed and 15 wounded in a weeks-long campaign to capture al-Bab.

Moreover, the United States-supported Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) also vie to capture the town to unite the canton of Afrin with Kobani.

Turkey has so far lost 39 soldiers, three of them captured as prisoners of war by IS.

The Turkish Army backing the Free Syrian Army (FSA) launched the Euphrates Shield in late August, driving IS from the last portion of its southern border to deny the YPG further territorial gains.

The minister added there were FSA “martyrs” too but did not specify a number, saying 1,005 IS fighters had been killed since the beginning of the operation.

Isik, whose speech was televised on the Parliament’s TV, said along with IS the Turkish army was also fighting the YPG and Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Unlike the US, the Turkish government makes no distinction between the YPG and PKK as “terrorist groups.”

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany