Turkish solider killed in rocket attack near Syria’s Jarablus

August 28, 2016 WORLD No Comments

A rocket attack on a Turkish tank has killed one soldier and injured three others close to the northern Syrian town of Jarablus.

According to reports, the rocket was launched from territory held by Kurdish YPG forces on Saturday.

Also, severe fighting erupted between Turkish and Kurdish forces in two other villages close to Jarablus after Turkish tanks closed in on the villages.  

Earlier, Turkey sent six more tanks into northern Syria to join 50 other tanks and some 380 troops already deployed in the area.  

Jarablus is located in Syria’s strategic province of Aleppo and some 400 kilometers (248 miles) northeast of the capital, Damascus.

Turkish armored personnel carriers drive towards the border in Karkamis on the Turkish-Syrian border in the southeastern Gaziantep province, Turkey, August 27, 2016. (Reuters)

Meanwhile, security sources announced that two Turkish F-16 jets have launched raids on regions controlled by the YPG, which is part of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) coalition. Attacks were also carried out against six Daesh targets in the region.    

Earlier, the Jarablus Military Council group, which is also part of the so-called SDF, announced that Turkish jets have struck civilian homes in the village of Amarna, south of Jarablus.

Turkish soldiers sit in a tank driving to Syria from the Turkish Syrian border city of Karkamis in the southern region of Gaziantep, on August 27, 2016. (AFP)

The council noted that several civilians were wounded in the attacks, which it described as “a dangerous escalation that threatens the fate of the region.”

The airstrikes came after Turkish artillery shelled SDF positions the day before, according to the council.

Turkish-backed militants seized Jarablus from the Daesh Takfiri terrorists on Wednesday, following an incursion by Turkey’s military that involved tanks and special forces supported by US and Turkish fighter jets.

The ground incursion into northern Syria, which Ankara claims is mainly aimed at fighting Daesh, is partly intended to contain Kurdish forces.

This picture taken around 5 kilometers west from the Turkish Syrian border city of Karkamis in the southern region of Gaziantep, on August 25, 2016 shows Turkish Army soldiers standing next a to tank. (AFP)

Turkey says the Kurds must withdraw to the east of the nearby Euphrates River.

Since March 2011, Syria has been gripped by militancy it blames on some Western states and their regional allies.

United Nations Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura estimates that over 400,000 people have been killed in the Syrian conflict.