Three Turkish soldiers were killed and one has been injured in an explosion in the town of Akçakale in southeastern province Sanlıurfa, near the Syrian border, the Turkish Defense Ministry said on Saturday.
The ministry said in a written statement that the explosion occurred when the soldiers were driving along the border wall to Syria’s Tal Abyad.
Security forces in the region detected YPG/PKK positions in the west of Tal Abyad following the attack.
In retaliatory attacks, 12 YPG/PKK terrorists were eliminated, the ministry later said on Twitter.
Operations in the region against terror elements are ongoing, it added.
The PKK, blacklisted as a terrorist group by Ankara and its Western allies, has been waging an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984.
The YPG is a terrorist offshoot of the PKK.
In northern Syria, Turkey has waged offensives against YPG/PKK terrorists in 2016, 2018, and 2019.
The town of Tal Abyad was held by Turkish forces and the Syrian opposition after Ankara launched a military operation in October 2019.
