Three Turkish soldiers were killed and another wounded in an attack on an army tank launched by Islamic State (IS) group jihadists in northern Syria, the Turkish army said in a statement carried by private NTV television.
The new fatalities come after three Turkish soldiers were killed in a rocket attack by IS this week. Turkey had blamed the death of one soldier on August 28 in a similar attack on Kurdish militia.
Turkey launched an unprecedented operation inside Syria on August 24, sending tanks and special troops to back Syrian opposition rebels in a bid to remove IS jihadists from the entire border area.
Today, the Turkish army said it had struck 15 IS targets 41 times, adding that four IS-held buildings had been destroyed in air operations.
Ankara-backed fighters seized the town of Jarabulus from IS jihadists on the first day of the operation, without much resistance from the extremist group.
As well as attacking the jihadists, Turkey has been working to push out the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its People's Protection Units (YPG) militia from the area.
Turkey said this week it looked "favourably" at the idea of a joint operation with the United States to clear Raqa, the self-declared capital of IS, from the militants.
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Friday the Syria operation was aimed at securing Turkey's southern border.
He vowed to press ahead with the military offensive against "not only Daesh (IS) but also other terror groups like PYD and YPG" until this goal is achieved.
Turkey sees the Syrian Kurdish militia force YPG as a terror group affiliated with its outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) waging a bloody campaign against the Turkish state.
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content
