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The Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) have claimed that 16 Turkish troops have been captured since the beginning of fierce military clashes between the sides last Saturday.
A YPG spokesperson cited by Sputnik, also said “the militiamen lost four people”.
Turkey on Friday started fresh shelling of the Syrian town of Afrin in a move to oust a US-backed Kurdish militia that Ankara considers “terrorists” and vowed to press on with a full-scale operation against them.
The Turkish government has repeatedly warned it will strike Syrian towns controlled by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia, including Afrin, after the US said it was training a 30,000-strong border force there.
Turkey began its first wave of artillery fire targeting Kurdish fighters in Afrin, Syria on Tuesday night, said an Al Arabiya reporter.
This comes as a retaliation to the Peoples’ Protection Units (YPG) firing a large number of missiles targeting settlements in the Azaz region bordering Turkey and Syria, which is controlled by the Turkish-backed opposition Free Syrian Army, media reports said.
Ukraine’s military said on January 12 that one of its soldiers was killed and four wounded in clashes that took place in the eastern part of the country during the previous 24 hours.
A Defense Ministry statement said Russia-backed separatists violated a frequently breached cease-fire nine times in skirmishes where separatists fired machine guns, grenade launchers, and mortars.
The Turkish army is preparing to unleash an offensive against the Kurdish-controlled Afreen region in northern Syria, pan-Arab al-Mayadeen TV reported on Sunday.
The Turkish army has set up field hospitals in a Turkish border area of Kumlu close to Syria’s Idlib province in northwestern Syria as part of the preparation to wage an offensive on Afreen in the countryside of Aleppo province in northern Syria, said the report.