Three soldiers killed in ISIL attack on Turkish tank in Syria

Turkish troops drive their tanks on a road near the Syrian village of al-Waqf and some 3km south of al-Rai. AFP photo

Three soldiers were killed and one was injured on Sept. 9 when Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants hit a Turkish tank in Syria, the Turkish Armed Forces have announced. 

The soldiers were killed after a tank was hit at 12:20 p.m. local time during clashes in the Tel al-Hawa region, the Turkish General Staff said in a statement.

The bodies of the martyred soldiers and the wounded soldier were brought to Turkey's southeastern Gaziantep province by helicopter.

The bodies of the martyrs will be sent to their hometowns after military funerals. The wounded soldier was taken to Gaziantep's 25 Aralık State Hospital.

The statement said that a rocket landed in a rural area near the southeastern province of Kilis from the ISIL-controlled Kafr Ghan region. No casualties were reported.

The military said Turkish artillery units fired 41 shots at 15 ISIL targets.

It also said that Turkish Air Forces carried out an air operation Sept. 9 morning against four ISIL targets in the Tal Ali, Tel al-Hawa, and south Wuquf regions.

"In the air operation, four buildings that were used as headquarters were destroyed," it said.      
The statement also said that a ISIL militant was "neutralized" in an air operation by coalition forces in Kafr Ghan.      

The attack marks the seventh Turkish casualty so far in the Euphrates Shield operation, on the 17th day of the operation aimed at clearing ISIL from the Turkish border by using Free Syrian Army (FSA) fighters backed by Turkish armor, artillery, and jets.      

On Aug. 27, one soldier was killed and three were injured when the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) attacked Turkish tanks.

Four Turkish soldiers were injured on Aug. 30 when a rocket fired from the west of Syria’s Jarablus region hit a tank in northern Syria. 

Late on Sept. 6, three soldiers were killed and four others were wounded in another ISIL attack on two tanks.