Four Turkish soldiers have been killed since Wednesday, when the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) launched a military offensive in northern Syria against the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), which it sees as a terrorist group, according to Turkish media reports.
Turkey launched its long-planned operation on Wednesday aimed at taking out the Kurdish forces it sees as terrorists but which most of the West views as key partners in the fight against Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants. The Turkish military operation began days after a surprise and widely criticized White House announcement that US forces would withdraw from the region.
One of the soldiers, Pvt. Ahmet Topçu, was killed on Thursday, while the other three, Spc. Corporal Yunus Mermer, Spc. Sgt. Abdülhamit Bilgen and Spc. Sgt. Hacı Bebek, were killed on Friday as a result of attacks from the Kurdish forces in the region.