ISTANBUL - A Turkish army helicopter was shot down by Syrian Kurdish YPG fighters near the north Syrian town of Afrin, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday.



"One of our helicopters was downed just recently," Erdogan said speaking to members of his AK Party (AKP) in Istanbul. "These things will happen, we are in a war... We might lose a helicopter, but they'll pay the price for this."



He did not mention any casualties.



YPG sources separately confirmed the downing of the helicopter, the first officially confirmed destruction of a Turkish aircraft over Syria during the country's long-running civil war.



Ankara launched an air and ground offensive last month against Kurdish fighters in Syria's Afrin region on its border, opening a new front in the multi-sided Syrian war. </s> A Turkish army helicopter was shot down by Syrian Kurdish YPG fighters near the north Syrian town of Afrin, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday and the Turkish military said two soldiers on board the aircraft died.

YPG sources separately confirmed the downing of the helicopter.

“One of our helicopters was downed just recently,” Erdogan said speaking to members of his AK Party (AKP) in Istanbul. “These things will happen, we are in a war… We might lose a helicopter, but they’ll pay the price for this.”

The Turkish military in a statement did not specify a reason for why the helicopter fell. It said two soldiers on board died and technical crews were investigating the crash.

Ankara launched an air and ground offensive last month against Kurdish fighters in Syria’s Afrin region on its border, opening a new front in the multi-sided Syrian war.

The downed helicopter was the first officially confirmed loss of a Turkish aircraft over Syria since the start of the country’s long-running civil war. </s> ISTANBUL (Reuters) - A Turkish army helicopter was shot down by Syrian Kurdish YPG fighters near the north Syrian town of Afrin, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday, and the Turkish military said two soldiers on board the aircraft were killed.

YPG sources separately confirmed the downing of the helicopter.

“One of our helicopters was downed just recently,” Erdogan told members of his AK Party in Istanbul. “These things will happen, we are in a war ... We might lose a helicopter, but they’ll pay the price for this.”

A statement from the Turkish military did not specify a reason for why the helicopter crashed. It said two soldiers on board were killed and technical crews were investigating the crash.

The downed helicopter was the first officially confirmed loss of a Turkish aircraft over Syria since the start of the country’s long-running civil war.

In another statement, the Turkish military said a total of nine soldiers were killed and 11 wounded on Saturday in clashes with mainly Kurdish forces near Afrin. It said it had killed 39 militants.

Ankara launched an air and ground offensive last month against Kurdish fighters in Syria’s Afrin region on its border, opening a new front in the multi-sided Syrian war.

Separately, the Turkish military said on Friday the construction of a fifth military post near Syria’s northwestern region of Idlib had begun.

Turkey agreed to set up 12 observation posts in Idlib and neighbouring provinces under a deal reached with Tehran and Moscow to try to reduce fighting between pro-government forces and mainly Islamist insurgents in northwest Syria.

However, the “de-escalation” in violence they were meant to monitor has collapsed. The Syrian army, alongside Iranian-backed militias and heavy Russian air power, launched a major offensive in December to take territory in Idlib province.

Idlib is one of the last main strongholds of rebels opposed to President Bashar al-Assad, who have been driven from most of their bastions in Syria since Russia joined the war on the side of Assad’s government in 2015. Turkey has long been one of the main allies of the anti-Assad rebels. </s> Two Turkish soldiers have died after their helicopter was shot down during Ankara's military operation against Syrian Kurdish fighters in northern Syria.

Binali Yildirim, Turkey's prime minister, announced the deaths in a televised address on Saturday.

Earlier, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had said an army helicopter had been "shot down" near the southern Hatay province.

"These things will happen, we are in a war ... We might lose a helicopter, but they'll pay the price for this," he said in Istanbul.

The state-run Anadolu Agency, citing the Turkish army, said the ATAK aircraft crashed at around 1pm local time (10:00 GMT).

Mustafa Bali, a spokesman for the Kurdish YPG armed group, told the AP news agency that his fighters downed the helicopter in Raju, northwest of the Syrian city of Afrin.

Turkey opened a new front in the multisided Syrian civil war, when it launched an air and ground offensive against YPG fighters on its southern border with Syria last month.

Armed campaign

The YPG - trained, armed and supported by the US to fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) - controls a swath of land in northern Syria.

Turkey considers the YPG an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has fought a decades-long armed campaign.

Against this backdrop, HR McMaster, the US national security adviser, held talks on Sunday with his Turkish counterpart, Ibrahim Kalin, in Istanbul.

According to a joint statement issued by the White House and Turkish presidency, they "addressed issues affecting bilateral relations in detail and explored ways to expand the joint fight against all forms of terrorism".

Rex Tillerson, US secretary of state, is also due to visit Ankara next week as part of a trip to five countries in the Middle East.

Al Jazeera's Jamal Elshayyal, reporting on Sunday from Gaziantep on the Turkey-Syria border, said the conflict was "escalating day by day".

More than 20 Turkish soldiers and 150 YPG fighters have been killed since the military offensive began, he said. Seven Turkish civilians have also lost their lives. </s> Turkey says it has suffered its deadliest day yet in northern Syria since launching its offensive against YPG Kurdish fighters there more than two weeks ago.

On Saturday, eight Turkish soldiers were killed, according to a Turkish army statement.

Some died after their tank came under fire from Syrian Kurdish forces.

Turkey wants to push the YPG, which it says are "terrorists", out of Afrin to create a buffer zone along its southern border.

YPG fighters targeted the Turkish army tank in Sheikh Haruz, northeast of Afrin, killing five soldiers. Three other soldiers were killed in fighting elsewhere in Afrin.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim promised to retaliate in a statement on Twitter.

"They will pay for this twice as much. We have given the necessary response instantly, and we continue to do so," Yildirim said.

Immediately after the attack at Sheikh Haruz, an air operation targeting YPG positions and weapon storages in the area was launched, the army said.

Turkey's Operation Olive Branch began on January 20 along with the Free Syrian Army (FSA) to clear armed Kurdish groups and Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) fighters from Afrin in northwestern Syria.

Since the start of the operation, Kurdish fighters have carried out cross-border attacks by firing rockets into southern Turkey.

According to the Turkish army, the operation aims to establish security and stability along Turkish borders and the region as well as to protect Syrians from what Ankara called "terrorist oppression and cruelty".

Meanwhile, Syrian rebels shot down a Russian warplane in northwestern Idlib province on Saturday, the Russian defence ministry said.

The pilot of the aircraft, a Sukhoi 25, used his ejection seat after his plane was hit by a man-carried portable air defence missile.

He was later killed when rebels tried to capture him.

"The pilot managed to report the ejection in the area controlled by the militants of Jabhat al-Nusra, but later he died fighting the terrorists," a statement by the Russian ministry of defence said.

The downing of the aircraft has been claimed by Hay'et Tahrir al-Sham, commonly known as Tahrir al-Sham. The group is spearheaded by the former al-Nusra Front, which used to be al-Qaeda's branch in Syria.

Moscow has retaliated with dozens of attacks in which at least 10 civilians were killed, according to local activists. Russia says it has killed 30 fighters.

There has been heavy fighting in Idlib for weeks. The UN says about 100,000 civilians have been displaced. </s> The Syrian Democratic Forces have downed a Turkish helicopter in the Syrian city of Afrin, an SDF representative told Sputnik Saturday.Earlier this day, the SDF reported that the group's militia had downed two Turkish reconnaissance Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) in the village of Adama, northern Syria.The group also engaged in skirmishes with a Turkish convoy in the Chia district of Afrin and with Turkish forces, supported by the Free Syrian Army, in Qastal Ma'af.Kurdish militia has downed two Turkish reconnaissance Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) in the village of Adama, northern Syria, the Syrian Democratic Forces' (SDF) media center reported Saturday.Beyond that, the media center stated that the SDF also attacked a Turkish military convoy in the Chia district, killing two Turkish soldiers.According to the report, Turkey continues to bomb Afrin, especially the districts of Jabal Bafalon and Chia. The SDF, in their turn, are repelling the attacks of the Turkish forces, supported by the Free Syrian Army, on Qastal Ma'af, which is a strategically important point, and have managed to destroy an armored vehicle.Turkey has been conducting the Olive Branch military operation in the Kurdish-dominated Syrian town of Afrin since January 20. The town is controlled by the US-backed Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), which is considered to be affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), designated as a terrorist group by Turkey and several other countries. According to Ankara, the offensive is not aimed against the Syrian government; the latter, however, described the operation as a violation of Syria's sovereignty. </s> BEIRUT/ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkish warplanes attacked pro-Syrian government forces overnight, killing at least 17 people in a village in the north of the Afrin region in northwestern Syria, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Friday.

The dead included three members of the Syrian Kurdish YPG force, while the rest came from militias that support President Bashar al-Assad and entered Afrin last week to help repel a Turkish offensive, the Observatory said.

The Turkish military declined to comment on the Observatory report, but the Turkish state-run Anadolu news agency reported on Friday that Turkish attack helicopters had killed nine YPG fighters in the west of Afrin.

Another Turkish news agency, Dogan, reported that Turkish and allied forces had started an operation on Friday morning to take control of the town of Rajo in Afrin.

Turkey and allied Syrian rebel groups began their operation against the YPG in Afrin in January, aiming to drive out the Kurdish militia, which Ankara sees as a terrorist group linked to an insurgency inside Turkey’s borders.

Despite making slow progress at first, the offensive has gained control over all Afrin’s border areas adjoining Turkey. Late on Thursday, the Turkish military said eight Turkish soldiers had been killed and 13 injured in clashes in Afrin.

Last month, after the YPG asked the Syrian government to send its army to repel the offensive, pro-Syrian government militias crossed into Afrin and deployed along the frontlines with Turkey.

However, the move did not deter the Turkish offensive and has not so far heralded any wider escalation involving the Syrian government and the forces that support it. </s> ISTANBUL, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Turkish warplanes hit Kurdish YPG militia targets in Syria's Afrin region, the army said on Friday, and a monitoring group reported that seven fighters and two civilians were killed in strikes.

The overnight attacks came after a lull in Turkish air strikes following the shooting down of a Russian warplane elsewhere in Syria last weekend.

The air strikes destroyed 19 targets including ammunition depots, shelters and gun positions, the armed forces said in a statement without specifying when the raids were conducted. The raids began at midnight, state-run Anadolu news agency said.

Seven YPG fighter and two civilians were killed in the strikes, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based group that monitors the war in Syria.

Turkey had halted air strikes as Russia worked on its air defence system in the wake of the shooting down by Syrian rebels of a Russian warplane in Idlib province on Feb. 3, Turkey's Hurriyet newspaper reported.

Ankara launched an air and ground offensive in Afrin on Jan. 20 against the YPG, which it views as a terrorist group and an extension of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) that has waged a three-decade insurgency on Turkish soil.

Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke by telephone on Thursday and agreed to strengthen military and security service coordination in Syria, according to the Kremlin.

The YPG and its allies have set up three autonomous cantons in the north, including Afrin, since the Syrian conflict began in 2011.

Their territory has expanded since they joined forces with the United States to fight Islamic State militants - although Washington opposes their autonomy plans, as does Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government.

Ankara has been angered by U.S. support for the Kurdish-led forces has infuriated Turkey, which views growing Kurdish power as a security threat along its frontier. (Additional reporting by Tom Perry in Beirut; Editing by David Dolan and Matthew Mpoke Bigg) </s> Turkish warplanes attacked pro-Syrian government forces overnight, killing at least 17 people in a village in the north of the Afrin region in northwestern Syria, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Friday.

The dead included three members of the Syrian Kurdish YPG force, while the rest came from militias that support President Bashar al-Assad and entered Afrin last week to help repel a Turkish offensive, the Observatory said.

The Turkish military declined to comment on the Observatory report, but the Turkish state-run Anadolu news agency reported on Friday that Turkish attack helicopters had killed nine YPG fighters in the west of Afrin.

Another Turkish news agency, Dogan, reported that Turkish and allied forces had started an operation on Friday morning to take control of the town of Rajo in Afrin.

Turkey and allied Syrian rebel groups began their operation against the YPG in Afrin in January, aiming to drive out the Kurdish militia, which Ankara sees as a terrorist group linked to an insurgency inside Turkey’s borders.

Despite making slow progress at first, the offensive has gained control over all Afrin’s border areas adjoining Turkey. Late on Thursday, the Turkish military said eight Turkish soldiers had been killed and 13 injured in clashes in Afrin.

Last month, after the YPG asked the Syrian government to send its army to repel the offensive, pro-Syrian government militias crossed into Afrin and deployed along the frontlines with Turkey.

However, the move did not deter the Turkish offensive and has not so far heralded any wider escalation involving the Syrian government and the forces that support it.
The Kurdish YPG shoots down a Turkish Air Force T129 ATAK helicopter over Syria's Afrin District, killing both pilots.