One Turkish soldier was killed in clashes with Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants in the al-Bab area of northern Syria on Saturday, while another succumbed the same day to injuries sustained in an accidental airstrike by a Russian warplane on a building occupied by Turkish troops.
Spc. Sgt. Sedat Atalay, who was injured during the Russian airstrike on Thursday on al-Bab, died at the Gaziantep Hospital, the Evrensel daily reported on Saturday, bringing the number of Turks killed by the Russian warplane to four.
The number of Turkish soldiers killed during Operation Euphrates Shield, which was launched on Aug, 24, has risen to 71 with the latest deaths.
Earlier on Saturday the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) also stated that 2,705 ISIL and 344 Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) members have been “neutralized” since the beginning of the operation.
Three Turkish soldiers were initially killed and 11 were injured in the attack by the Russian warplane on Thursday.
As part of Operation Euphrates Shield, Turkey sent tanks across the border to help Syrian rebels drive ISIL from the border city of Jarabulus on Aug. 24, in a dramatic escalation of its involvement in the Syrian civil war.