FILE - In this March 24, 2018 file photo, Turkish soldiers atop an armored personnel carrier secure the streets of the northwestern city of Afrin, Syria, during a Turkish government-organized media tour into northern Syria. Turkish military said Sunday, March. 31, 2019 that one of its soldier has been killed in Syria’s north in what Syrian activists describe as an attack by local Kurdish fighters. Turkey's ministry of defense said a mortar attack Sunday on its troops around Afrin in northwestern Syria killed one soldier and wounded another. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis, File)
Republished March 31, 2019 - 9:28 AM
Original Publication Date March 31, 2019 - 8:56 AM
BEIRUT - A Turkish soldier was killed in a mortar attack on Sunday near the northern Syrian town of Afrin, the Turkish ministry of defence said, blaming the attack on "terrorists" and responding with a barrage of shelling.
The ministry said another soldier was wounded in the attack, and that Turkish forces had struck back against "terrorist targets."
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, said Turkey shelled at least three villages north of the town of Afrin, mainly causing material damage.
Turkey and allied Syrian fighters took control of Afrin last year, expelling local Kurdish fighters that Ankara considers terrorists. The Turkish takeover set off a series of attacks against Turkey's presence in the originally Kurdish-dominated areas.
The Observatory said at least 140 Turkish shells hit the villages. The area north of Afrin is controlled by the Syrian government, but Kurdish militia fighters have maintained some presence there.
The Kurdish-run Hawar news agency also reported the shelling but gave no details on casualties.
News from © The Associated Press, 2019