Turkey says one of its soldiers killed in attack near Syria

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The Turkish Defense Ministry claimed Sunday that militants carried out an attack with a rocket launcher on a Turkish military post near the Syrian border on Sunday, killing one soldier and wounding another.

In a statement, the ministry said that following the attack on the post at Suruc, in Sanliurfa province, Turkish forces retaliated.

"Targets were identified in the area and immediately fired upon, with 12 terrorists neutralized according to initial information," the statement read, adding that operations were continuing in the area.

Sources also told Anadolu Agency that Turkey's National Intelligence Organization carried out two separate drone strikes in northern Syria that killed "at least five terrorists, including senior operative Mehmet Gurbuz who was wanted with a red notice."

In the same context, the Turkish Defense Ministry said in a statement that seven more "terrorists" were killed in northern Iraq.

Turkish military base attacked by ATGM in Iraq

It is noteworthy that last week, Iraqi media sources said that the Turkish Baberni military base in northern Iraq came under attack by a Konkurs ATGM missile.

The attack on the base in Iraqi Kurdistan Duhok Province comes after a guided missile attack targeted the same base in the same week.

A published video showed the missile accurately hitting a bulldozer in the base and destroying it.

Turkey has deployed its troops in areas of northern Iraq and Syria under the pretext of fighting Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants and is carrying out aerial attacks on parts of the northern areas of these countries.

Attacks in Syria

On August 16, three Syrian soldiers were killed and six others were injured in an attack on several locations in the Aleppo countryside by the Turkish occupation.

According to a military source, the attack was part of the Turkish regime's continuous support for armed terrorist groups.

A day before, the city of Ayn Al-Arab, also known as Kobani, and its countryside in the north of Aleppo witnessed military escalations of immeasurable violence.

The Syrian Minister of Defense, Gen. Ali Mahmoud Abbas, had urged the international community at the Moscow International Security Conference to "exert pressure to lift the unjust coercive measures imposed on Syria by the US and Western regimes."

"We stress the necessity of ending the American and Turkish occupation of Syrian territories in order to extend the State’s control over them and to be able to invest in their resources that are subject to looting and theft," Abbas said.

Attacks in Iraq

Al Mayadeen correspondent reported that the Turkish-operated Zilkan military base in Bashiqa, east of Nineveh governorate was targeted by several rockets on August 25.

Days before, our correspondent in Baghdad also reported that Turkish warplanes targeted the village of Sigiri in the Duhok governorate in northern Iraq.

This was preceded by Turkish helicopters raiding Sidekan in Soran District, Erbil Governorate, northern Iraq. The attack resulted in fires breaking out in a number of agricultural lands.

It is noteworthy that Turkish planes are constantly targeting villages in the Duhok governorate, where, on July 20, Turkish raids targeted the Barkh resort, killing a number of civilians and wounding dozens.

It is worth noting that Turkey had launched a cross-border military offensive against PKK militants in northern Iraq in an operation that was officially announced on April 18. The operation drew condemnation from Iraq, with the presidency saying that Ankara's operation "poses a threat" to Iraqi national security.