ISTANBUL/BEIRUT: A total of 14 Turkish soldiers were killed and 33 wounded Wednesday in Daesh attacks in the northern Syrian town of Al-Bab, Turkey army said on Wednesday.
The toll, the heaviest single day loss for the Turkish army in its Syria operation that started in August, came in fighting with jihadists that included three suicide car bomb attacks, the army added in a statement quoted by Turkish media.
The report came hours after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Daesh was fighting “for dear life” in Al-Bab, carrying out suicide bombings and attacks with improvised explosive devices.
Earlier today four soldiers were also reported killed in the battle for Al-Bab.
A total of 35 Turkish soldiers have died in northern Syria since August, when Turkey sent ground troops to support Turkey-backed Syrian opposition forces in clearing a border area of Daesh militants and to curb Syrian Kurdish territorial expansion.
Still no UN observers?
Two days after a UN resolution was approved urging immediate deployment of monitors to former opposition-held eastern Aleppo in war-torn Syria, it’s not clear whether any UN observers are actually on the ground there.
Deputy UN spokesman Farhan Haq says some UN staff have been present at a Syrian government checkpoint outside eastern Aleppo but he couldn’t say for sure if any observers were on hand in the eastern part of the city where civilians were loading into buses.
Haq says: “I don’t know what our presence is in eastern Aleppo. I would need further information on that.”
Evacuations resumed Wednesday after a delay, according to Haq, and more than 25,000 people have been evacuated from besieged neighborhoods in the eastern part of the city between Dec. 15-20. About 300 wounded and sick have been evacuated to Turkey, he said.
Haq said an additional 20 UN staff have been deployed in the area to bolster the 100 already in the area to help with evacuations.
The Security Council approved the resolution calling for observers on Monday.
Turkish soldiers in Syria suffer heavy casualties in a day from Daesh attacks
Turkish soldiers in Syria suffer heavy casualties in a day from Daesh attacks
Syria army’s clashes with Kurds ‘setback’ to Turkiye peace process: PKK spokesman
- “The developments in Syria and the larger Middle East have a direct effect on the peace process in Turkiye,” said Hiwa
- The attacks “against the Kurds are a plot and conspiracy against the peace process”
BAGHDAD: Recent clashes between Syria’s military and Kurdish forces are a “setback” and a “plot” to derail the PKK peace process with Turkiye, a spokesman for the Kurdish militant group told AFP on Tuesday.
“The developments in Syria and the larger Middle East have a direct effect on the peace process in Turkiye,” said Zagros Hiwa, spokesman for the political wing of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party.
The attacks “against the Kurds are a plot and conspiracy against the peace process and they indicate a setback in the process,” he said.
Syria’s government and Kurdish forces on Saturday extended a truce by 15 days after the Kurds lost large areas to government forces during weeks of clashes.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) find themselves now restricted to Kurdish-majority areas in the country’s north.
Turkiye is a close ally of Syria’s new leadership that overthrew Bashar Assad in December 2024, and which is now seeking to extend state control across Syria.
Ankara is simultaneously leading a drive to reach a settlement with the PKK — listed as a terror group by Turkiye and its Western allies.
Last year, the PKK said it was ending its four-decade insurgency in favor of democratic means but the process has largely stalled amid the stand-off in Syria.
Turkiye accuses the Syrian Kurdish forces of being an offshoot of the PKK.
Hiwa said the PKK’s “commitment to the peace process is a strategic issue.”
But he added that “the new strategy does not exclude the urgency of self-defense against genocidal attacks.”
