ISTANBUL – Three Turkish soldiers were killed and 10 were wounded in northern Syria on Thursday in what the Turkish military said was a pre-dawn airstrike believed to have been carried out by Syrian government forces.

A statement posted on the website of the Turkish Armed Forces said the attack took place at 3 a.m. but did not provide an exact location for the strike. Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency said the airstrike took place near the town of al-Bab, which Turkish-backed Syrian opposition forces are trying to take back from the Islamic State group.

However, a Syrian monitoring group that tracks the conflict through a network of activists on the ground said the deaths of the Turkish soldiers were caused by an IS suicide attack on Wednesday, disputing the Turkish government claim of a Thursday airstrike.

Rami Abdurrahman, who runs the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the suicide attack occurred Wednesday in the al-Bab. He dismissed reports that it was an airstrike.

The discrepancies in the statements could not be immediately resolved.

The Turkish troops are not fighting Syrian government forces and the attack would be the first assault on Turkish soldiers by the Syrian government forces.

In Ankara, Turkey’s main opposition party leader urged the government to act “with common sense” and not escalate tensions.

“This (issue) could drag Turkey toward a very dangerous process,” Kemal Kilicdaroglu said on Thursday.

Citing national security considerations, Turkish authorities imposed a temporary media ban on coverage of the attack, barring media outlets from reports that “foster fear, panic and chaos,” and contain images of the deceased or the wounded, or exaggerated accounts.

The bodies of the dead were taken to the morgue in the southeastern Turkish city of Gaziantep by helicopter, the Turkish army said. The 10 wounded soldiers were being treated at hospitals in Gaziantep and in the neighboring city of Kilis.

The Turkish military, meanwhile, pressed ahead with its efforts to capture al-Bab.

Turkish warplanes struck IS positions in al-Bab and the northern Syrian towns of Kabbasin, Bzagah and Arimah, destroying a building reportedly used as an IS headquarters and seven defensive positions, Anadolu reported, citing unnamed Turkish military officials.

Associated Press Writers Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, and Sarah El Deeb in Beirut contributed to this report. </s> Three Turkish soldiers were killed and 10 were wounded in northern Syria on Thursday in what the Turkish military said was a pre-dawn airstrike believed to have been carried out by Syrian government forces.

A statement posted on the website of the Turkish Armed Forces said the attack took place at 3 a.m. but did not provide an exact location for the strike. Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency said the airstrike took place near the town of al-Bab, which Turkish-backed Syrian opposition forces are trying to take back from the Islamic State group.

However, a Syrian monitoring group that tracks the conflict through a network of activists on the ground said the deaths of the Turkish soldiers were caused by an IS suicide attack on Wednesday, disputing the Turkish government claim of a Thursday airstrike.

Rami Abdurrahman, who runs the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the suicide attack occurred Wednesday in the rural area of al-Bab, near a village called Waqqah. He dismissed reports that it was an airstrike.

The discrepancies in the statements from Ankara and Abdurrahman could not be immediately resolved. There was no comment from Damascus but the Aamaq news agency, an IS media arm, also reported a suicide attack against Turkish troops in a village in rural al-Bab on Wednesday.

The area is remote and no independent reporting is possible from there.

One of the wounded soldiers was said to be in critical condition, the Turkish military said.

If the attack is confirmed to be a Syrian government airstrike, it is likely to ratchet up tensions between Ankara and Damascus.

In August, Ankara sent ground troops into northern Syria to support Syrian opposition fighters battle the IS and to curb Syrian Kurdish forces' territorial gains. Ankara views Syrian Kurdish troops as an extension of the Kurdish insurgency in southeastern Turkey.

The Turkish troops are not fighting Syrian government forces and the attack would be the first assault on Turkish soldiers by the Syrian government forces.

In Ankara, Turkey's main opposition party leader urged the government to act "with common sense" and not escalate tensions.

"This (issue) could drag Turkey toward a very dangerous process," Kemal Kilicdaroglu said on Thursday.

Citing national security considerations, Turkish authorities imposed a temporary media ban on coverage of the attack, barring media outlets from reports that "foster fear, panic and chaos," and contain images of the deceased or the wounded, or exaggerated accounts.

The bodies of the dead were taken to the morgue in the southeastern Turkish city of Gaziantep by helicopter, the Turkish army said. The 10 wounded soldiers were being treated at hospitals in Gaziantep and in the neighboring city of Kilis.

The Turkish military, meanwhile, pressed ahead with its efforts to capture al-Bab.

Turkish warplanes struck IS positions in al-Bab and the northern Syrian towns of Kabbasin, Bzagah and Arimah, destroying a building reportedly used as an IS headquarters and seven defensive positions, Anadolu reported, citing unnamed Turkish military officials. </s> ANKARA: The Turkish army blamed the Syrian regime for an air strike on Thursday in northern Syria that killed three soldiers and wounded 10, it said in a statement.

“In the air strike assessed to have been by Syrian regime forces, three of our heroic soldiers were killed and 10 soldiers wounded, one seriously,” said the statement on its website.

The army said the strike took place at 3:30 am (0030 GMT). Turkish media reported earlier that the attack in the Al Bab region was by Islamic State (IS) jihadists.

This is the first time the army has blamed President Bashar Assad’s regime for an attack killing Turkish soldiers during Ankara’s three month operation in northern Syria.

The Turkish military launched the operation — dubbed “Euphrates Shield” — in August supporting Syrian opposition fighters seeking to retake territory from IS in northern Syria with tanks and aerial support.

Hundreds of Turkish soldiers are taking part in the operation, which President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said this week was pushing forward with its aim of taking Al Bab from IS.

“We reached Al Bab right now and besieged it from the west,” the president said in a speech on Tuesday.

The latest deaths raise to at least 15 the number of Turkish soldiers killed since Turkey began its operation in northern Syria.

Most were killed by IS but one soldier was killed in an attack blamed on the Kurdish People’s Protection Forces (YPG). </s> ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Three Turkish soldiers were killed and seven others wounded in an Islamic State attack in Syria's al-Bab region, security and hospital sources in Turkey said on Thursday.

After the attack, during a Syrian rebel offensive backed by the Turkish military, the wounded soldiers were transferred to hospitals in the Turkish border provinces of Kilis and Gaziantep, sources said.

(Writing by Humeyra Pamuk; Editing by Daren Butler) </s> Three Turkish soldiers were killed in northern Syria in what the Turkish military said was a pre-dawn Syrian airstrike on Thursday, an account disputed by Syrian activists, who said the soldiers were killed by an Islamic State suicide attack the day before.

The Turkish military said in a statement on its website that the attack took place at 3:30 a.m., but did not provide an exact location. Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency said the airstrike took place near the town of al-Bab, which Turkish-backed Syrian opposition forces are trying to take back from the Islamic State group.

However, a Syrian monitoring group that tracks the conflict through a network of activists on the ground said the Turkish soldiers were killed by an IS suicide attack on Wednesday.

Rami Abdurrahman, who runs the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the suicide attack occurred outside al-Bab, near a village called Waqqah. He dismissed reports that it was an airstrike.

The conflicting accounts could not be immediately reconciled. There was no comment from Damascus, but the IS-run Aamaq news agency reported a suicide attack against Turkish troops in a village near al-Bab on Wednesday.

The Turkish military said 10 other soldiers were wounded in the attack, with one in critical condition.

If the attack is confirmed to be a Syrian government airstrike, it would escalate tensions with Turkey, which is a leading supporter of the rebels fighting to topple President Bashar Assad.

Turkey sent ground troops into northern Syria in August to help Syrian opposition fighters battle both IS and U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish forces, which Ankara sees as an extension of the Kurdish insurgency in southeastern Turkey.

The Turkish troops are not fighting Syrian government forces, and have not been attacked by them, though Damascus has strongly objected to the military intervention.

"It is clear that there are some who are not pleased with Turkey's fight against Daesh," Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said, referring to the Arabic acronym for IS. "But of course these attacks will be responded to in kind."

Turkey's main opposition party leader urged the government to act "with common sense" and not escalate tensions.

"This (issue) could drag Turkey toward a very dangerous process," Kemal Kilicdaroglu said.

Citing national security considerations, Turkish authorities imposed a temporary media ban on coverage of the attack, barring media outlets from reports that "foster fear, panic and chaos," and contain images of the deceased or the wounded, or exaggerated accounts.

Turkish warplanes meanwhile struck IS positions in al-Bab and other northern Syrian towns, destroying a building reportedly used as an IS headquarters and seven defensive positions, Anadolu reported, citing unnamed Turkish military officials.

Elsewhere in Syria, a senior U.N. official said his team has received written approval from Syrian rebels in the besieged parts of the northern city of Aleppo to allow aid in and evacuate the wounded.

Jan Egeland told reporters in Geneva that the U.N. also has "verbal support" from Russia, a close ally of the Syrian government, for a four-point plan reached earlier this month on Aleppo, the epicenter of the civil war.

Egeland said the team is still waiting for approval from the Syrian government, adding that trucks carrying aid could start entering east Aleppo within hours. East Aleppo is home to some 275,000 people and has been besieged by government forces since July.

The U.N. official said there are currently more than 900,000 people in besieged areas around Syria, more "than at any time I can remember in this war." The conflict began in 2011 with an Arab Spring-inspired uprising against Assad. </s> BEIRUT (AP)— Turkey's state news agency Andadolu says the death toll from a car bomb near the town of al-Bab, just captured from Islamic State militants in northern Syria, has risen to 60. Most of the victims were civilians.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim , meanwhile, says a separate attack south of al-Bab killed two Turkish soldiers.

Friday's attacks come a day after the town was taken by Turkish forces and Syrian opposition fighters from Islamic State militants. IS militants withdrew from the town, but they still control areas around it.

In the first attack, a suicide car bomb struck outside a security office in Sousian village, north of al-Bab, killing civilians lining up seeking permits to return home. Yildrim says at least six Turkey-backed fighters were killed in that bombing.

The second attack took place near Tadif, a town still controlled by IS south of al-Bab. The Turkish military said the soldiers were killed when an improvised explosive device went off but Yildrim called it a suicide attack that happened as the soldiers were on a road patrol. Three other Turkish soldiers were wounded.

The deaths raise the death toll of Turkish soldiers in northern Syria since August to 70. </s> An air strike thought to have been carried out by Syrian government forces killed three Turkish soldiers and wounded 10 others overnight, one of them seriously, the Turkish military said on Thursday.

The attack occurred at around 3:30 am (0030 GMT) in the course of a Turkish-led Syrian rebel operation in northern Syria, the army statement said. It said the wounded soldiers were evacuated rapidly from the area.

It would be the first time Turkish soldiers are known to have been killed by Syrian government forces in the offensive, dubbed Euphrates Shield, which was launched on Aug. 24.

The operation aims to push Islamic State militants, as well as the Kurdish YPG militia, away from the Syrian side of Turkey's border and has advanced to near the city of al-Bab, which is controlled by the jihadists.

Earlier, security and hospital sources in Turkey said Islamic State fighters had carried out an attack which killed three Turkish soldiers in the al-Bab region.

They said the wounded soldiers were transferred to hospitals in the Turkish border provinces of Kilis and Gaziantep. </s> Three Turkish soldiers were killed and 10 were wounded in northern Syria on Thursday in what the Turkish military said was a pre-dawn airstrike believed to have been carried out by Syrian government forces.

A statement posted on the website of the Turkish Armed Forces said the attack took place at 3 a.m. but did not provide an exact location for the strike. Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency said the airstrike took place near the town of al-Bab, which Turkish-backed Syrian opposition forces are trying to take back from the Islamic State group.

One of the wounded soldiers was said to be in critical condition, the military said.

The casualties are likely to ratchet up tensions between Ankara and Damascus. In August, Ankara sent ground troops into northern Syria to support Syrian opposition fighters battle the IS and to curb Syrian Kurdish forces' territorial gains. Ankara views Syrian Kurdish troops as an extension of the Kurdish insurgency in southeastern Turkey.

The Turkish troops are not fighting Syrian government forces and the attack would be the first assault on Turkish soldiers by the Syrian government forces.

The bodies of the dead have been taken to the morgue in the southeastern Turkish city of Gaziantep by helicopter, the army said. The 10 wounded soldiers were being treated at hospitals in Gaziantep and in the neighboring city of Kilis. </s> Following the Turkish military accusing the Syrian air force of striking its soldiers in the Al-Bab Plateau of east Aleppo yesterday, the Kremlin has announced that it was responsible for the accidental attack.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed to Sputnik that Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed condolences to Turkish President Recep Tayiip Erdogan over an accidental Russian airstrike that had killed Turkish soldiers in Syria.

In addition to the announcement by Peskov, the Russian Defense Ministry also confirmed the accidental strike against the Turkish forces.

The strike resulted in the death of three Turkish soldiers and a further 11 wounded.

Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed his condolences to his Turkish counterpart Erdogan, the Kremlin said earlier.

Despite this set back, they both agreed to continue their operations against ISIS and other extremist groups in Syria.

 Read more

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Recip Erdogan on Thursday agreed to bolster military coordination in Syria, the Kremlin said, after a Russian strike killed three Turkish soldiers.

“Putin expressed condolences over the tragic incident that caused the death of several Turkish servicemen in the area of the town of Al-Bab,” the Kremlin said after the two leaders spoke by phone.

“It was agreed to enhance military coordination in the course of the operation in Syria against ISIL fighters and other extremist organizations,” the statement said.

The Kremlin statement — which came before Turkey announced the deadly incident — did not mention explicitly that Russian firepower was to blame.

But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed the Russian strike took place on Thursday morning and said that it was due to a “lack of agreement of coordinates during strikes by the Russian air force.”

Russia’s defense ministry said that Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov also called his Turkish counterpart to offer condolences over the “accidental” strike by a Russian jet.

“Russian jets were carrying out a military mission to destroy ISIL positions in the area of Al-Bab,” a defense ministry statement said.

The two military chiefs “agreed on closer coordination of joint actions and also the exchange of information about the situation on the ground,” it said.

Syrian Army attacks and sweeps Daesh positions near Al-Bab ~ [East of Aleppo province]

The advance of the Syrian army on Daesh positions in the east of Aleppo province caught the terrorists by surprise. Sputnik Arabic reports that the Syrian infantry successfully overcame three barrier boundaries which were put up by Daesh on the outskirts of al-Bab. ~ Read more
• Syrian Army attacks and sweeps Daesh positions near Al-Bab ~ [East of Aleppo province]
Three Turkish Army soldiers are killed and 10 others wounded in an attack in Syria's al-Bab District; however, there are conflicting reports on who carried out the attack. The Turkish military says the soldiers were targeted in a airstrike by a Syrian warplane, while the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reports an ISIL suicide bomber was responsible.