Turkish army retaliates to ‘13 attacks from YPG-controlled Syrian soil’

ISTANBUL

The Turkish military has stated that 11 border patrols have been subjected to 13 attacks from areas controlled by the Kurdish Peoples’ Protection Units (YPG) in Syria following military air strikes on the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and YPG in Syria and Iraq. 

Six of these attacks came on April 27, the military said in a statement the same day, adding that the Turkish forces reciprocated. 

The mortar shells hit an army command post in the Akçakale district of Turkey’s southern Şanlıurfa province on April 27, according to news agencies. 

The Turkish army fired back, killing three YPG fighters, reports said. 

The military said one soldier was lightly injured in the attack. The YPG is seen as a terror group by Ankara due to its links to the PKK.

This was the second day in a row clashes have been reported across the border after the Turkish Air Force carried out a number of air strikes against PKK targets in Sinjar, Iraq and Karaçok, Syria. In northeast Syria, strikes targeted the YPG.

“Forty terrorists were killed in northern Iraq, and 30 terrorists were killed in northeastern Syria in an air strike,” the Turkish General Staff said.