Turkey retaliates to attacks from YPG-controlled Syria, at least 18 militants killed: Military

The Turkish military “retaliated” to a rocket attack on a Turkish border post in the province of Şanlıurfa from areas controlled by the Peoples’ Protection Units (YPG) in Syria on April 28, the army said, killing 11 militants. 

This added to an earlier statement, which said 11 border posts had been subjected to 13 attacks from areas controlled by YPG, following military air strikes on the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and YPG in Syria and Iraq. 

The April 28 statement said the Aksoy border post in the Ceylanpınar district of Şanlıurfa came under rocket fire in the early hours of the day. 

The military responded, killing three militants using the rocket launcher and eight others in a vehicle carrying machine guns, according to information it took from local sources. 

Seven other militants were killed and another vehicle carrying a machine gun was destroyed in similar retaliation a day earlier, according to the military. The mortar shells hit an army command post in the Akçakale district of Şanlıurfa province on April 27, injuring one soldier lightly.

The military said in an earlier statement that 11 border posts had been subjected to 13 attacks from YPG-controlled areas. 

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

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 in which 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.


Village guard killed in PKK attack in Turkey’s east 

Meanwhile, one village guard was killed and three others were wounded in an outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) attack in the eastern province of Van, state-run Anadolu Agency quoted local sources as saying. 
The attack was carried out in the Erciş district of Van, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on speaking to the media.      

The wounded were taken to Erciş State Hospital, they said.