Turkey reports 1st death in Syria incursion, claims 277 Kurdish fighters killed

Six civilian casualties reported in Turkey and seven in Syria

By AP 11 October 2019, 10:34 am 3 Edit

A picture taken in Akcakale at the Turkish border with Syria on October 10, 2019 shows smokes rising from the Syrian town of Tal Abyad after a mortar landed in the garden of a Turkish government building in Akcakale. (BULENT KILIC / AFP)

A picture taken in Akcakale at the Turkish border with Syria on October 10, 2019 shows smokes rising from the Syrian town of Tal Abyad after a mortar landed in the garden of a Turkish government building in Akcakale. (BULENT KILIC / AFP)

Turkey’s Defense Ministry said Friday a Turkish soldier has been killed during action in Syria — Turkey’s first military fatality in Ankara’s cross-border offensive, now into its third day.

The ministry said Friday that three soldiers were wounded. It didn’t provide details.

Separately, the ministry said 49 more “terrorists” were “neutralized” in the incursion, in reference to Syrian Kurdish fighters. It said the total number of Kurdish fighters killed in the incursion now numbers 277.

Those numbers could not be independently verified.

Turkey considers the Syrian Kurdish fighters as terrorists linked to a Kurdish insurgency within Turkey and has launched an invasion into northeastern Syria this week.

Ankara says the offensive is necessary for national security.

There have been civilian casualties on both sides: six civilians in Turkey and seven in Syria.

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