Two Turkish special operations police officers were killed and two others wounded in a missile attack perpetrated by the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in northern Syria, the Turkish interior ministry announced on Sunday.
The ministry said the YPG militants used a rocket to target an armored vehicle carrying the police officers near the town of Azaz.
One of the police officers was killed at the scene, while the other later succumbed to his injuries in an area that has a large Turkish military presence.
Turkey considers the YPG to be an extension of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the EU and the US.
Turkey has carried out three cross-border operations in Syria against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) as well as US-backed Kurdish militias and has frequently used factions of armed Syrian fighters in addition to its own forces.
US President Joe Biden accused Turkey of weakening the fight against ISIL and undermining stability through its military actions in northern Syria, in a letter he sent to the speaker of the US House of Representatives last week.