SULAIMANI (ESTA) — A Turkish soldier was killed in a clash with People’s Protection Units (YPG) in the region of Afrin on Thursday, Turkey’s defense ministry said.
The ministry of defense said YPG fighters had infiltrated the area and Turkish forces had opened fire in the direction of the attack, “neutralizing” six of the YPG fighters as they retreated, according to Reuters.
Turkish authorities commonly use that term to denote deaths but it can also refer to those wounded or captured.
Operations were continuing in the area, with Turkish forces supported by drones, the ministry said in a statement.
The governor’s office in Turkey’s Hatay province said the killed soldier was a sergeant and that the attack was staged overnight in the Gazaviye base area in Afrin, Reuters reported.
The Turkish military and its Syrian rebel allies captured control of Afrin, a mainly Kurdish region, from the YPG in March 2018 in one of a series of Turkish incursions into northern Syria.
Turkey considers the YPG as a “terrorist group” tied to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has fought an insurgency in southeast Turkey since 1984.
