The Syrian military attacked Turkish positions inside Syria following two bouts of airstrikes by Turkey that targeted different locations across the Arab country.
The Syrian armed forces launched a retaliatory attack on Tuesday, causing material and human losses at some Turkish military sites inside the Arab country, according to Syrian state media.
The army also targeted some armed groups’ positions and destroyed their training facilities.
The retaliation came after a Turkish airstrike near the western city of Aleppo killed at least three Syrian soldiers and injured six others.
Syria’s state television specified the target of the Turkish blitz as “military positions,” saying the Turkish warplanes had struck the target between 14:37 p.m. and 15:00 p.m. local time (11:37 and 12:00 GMT).
The developments come as the Turkish military has stepped up its attacks on Syrian border areas in recent days.
Earlier in the day, a Turkish aerial offensive had claimed the lives of at least 11 people in the war-torn country’s Kurdish-majority north.
Local sources, asking not to be named, told Syria’s official news agency SANA that Turkish forces have used loudspeakers in mosques in border areas close to Jarabulus city to ask people to stay indoors in preparation for the operation.
The sources added that numerous Turkish combat drones could be seen flying in the skies over areas in proximity to the frontier, and Turkish troops are rapidly mobilizing in most of the border towns of Hasakah, Raqqah and Aleppo provinces.
The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitor, described the fatalities as “fighters,” saying the deaths were caused after Turkish aircraft hit an outpost in the village of Jarqali, west of the Kurdish-held border town of Kobani.
The monitor failed to specify whether those who had been killed were affiliated with the Syrian army or Kurdish militants.
Since 2016, Turkey has launched three military operations inside Syria to target the United States-backed militants, known as the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG). Ankara accuses the YPG of being associated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been fighting a separatist war against Ankara for decades.
The Turkish military’s presence and operations violate the Arab country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and other senior officials have said Damascus reserves the right to respond to Turkey’s ongoing offensive through all legitimate means available.
