Image copyright Reuters Image caption Turkish troops, tanks and artillery are backing a three-month-old rebel offensive against IS

Three Turkish soldiers have been killed and 10 wounded in an attack in Syria, but reports differ about what happened.

Turkey's military said the soldiers had been targeted in a Syrian government air strike on Thursday, during an offensive by Turkish-backed rebels against so-called Islamic State.

However, a Syrian monitoring group said the deaths were caused by a suicide bomb attack on Wednesday claimed by IS.

Meanwhile a member of the US military has died while fighting against IS.

The soldier, who has not been named, died from wounds caused by an improvised explosive device in Ayn Issa, north of the IS stronghold Raqqa.

Officials gave no other information. It is not clear whether this was linked to the deaths of the Turkish soldiers.

Syria's military has not yet commented on the fate of the Turkish soldiers.

It would be the first time Turkish soldiers have been killed by Syrian government forces in the offensive, which Damascus has denounced as a "flagrant violation of Syrian sovereignty".

Dubbed Operation Euphrates Shield, the offensive was launched three months ago with the aim of pushing IS militants away from the Turkish border.

The Turkish government also wants to contain US-backed Syrian Kurdish Popular Protection Units (YPG) militia, which it says is an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in Turkey.

So far, the rebels have driven IS militants out of more than 1,800 sq km (694 sq miles) of territory, according to the Turkish military, and recaptured the key border town of Jarablus and the symbolically important village of Dabiq.

They are now besieging the town of al-Bab, the last IS stronghold in Aleppo province.

The Turkish military statement said the soldiers who were killed were deployed in northern Syria when they were targeted at about 03:30 (00:30 GMT) in an air strike that it "assessed to have been carried out by Syrian regime forces".

Image copyright AP Image caption The wounded soldiers were taken to hospitals in southern Turkey

It did not give an exact location, but the state-run Anadolu news agency reported that it was close to al-Bab.

The dead and injured soldiers, one of whom was said to be in a critical condition, were taken to hospitals in the southern Turkish provinces of Kilis and Gaziantep.

Later on Thursday, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights disputed the Turkish military's account, saying the soldiers had been killed an IS suicide bombing on Wednesday near the village of Waqqah, north-west of al-Bab.

Image copyright IS Image caption IS published a photo purportedly showing the suicide bomb blast near al-Bab on Wednesday

IS also issued a statement saying it had carried out a suicide bombing on a Turkish army position near Waqqah on Wednesday evening that caused an unspecified number of casualties.

Its self-styled news agency, Amaq, released video footage of the attack showing an explosives-filled armoured vehicle driving towards the frontline and then exploding.

The three deaths mean that at least 15 Turkish soldiers have been killed since Operation Euphrates Shield began, according to AFP news agency. Most died in clashes with IS, but one was killed in an attack blamed on the 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>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>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 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>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>Turkey has carried out a series of airstrikes on the Syrian city of al-Bab.



According to the Turkish military, the airstrikes were conducted against alleged ISIS targets in the city of al-Bab, located some 40 kilometers northeast of Aleppo, shortly before 8 a.m. local time (0500 GMT) on Friday.

The Turkish military also stated that three of its soldiers were killed and 10 more wounded in an air strike allegedly launched by Syrian government forces the day before.

Syrian president Bashar al-Assad had warned Turkey last month against making any advance toward their positions to the north and east of Aleppo.

The latest strikes were carried out after three Turkish soldiers were killed in the area on Wednesday. Turkey on Thursday claimed that a suspected Syrian airstrike had killed the three.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Thursday that Ankara would retaliate against the Syrian army, which has not commented on the developments.

The accusation and the threat of retaliation against Syria came even as the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a pro-militant monitoring group, said the Turkish soldiers had been killed in an attack by Daesh.

Rami Abdulrahman, who runs the Britain-based group, dismissed reports that it was an airstrike, saying that the soldiers were killed during an attack by Daesh in the rural area of al-Bab, near a village called Waqqah on Wednesday.

A fourth soldier reportedly died in clashes with Daesh in the city on Friday.

In its military incursion into Syria, the Turkish military is supporting militants, including the so-called Free Syrian Army (FSA), fighting to topple the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

Hundreds of Turkish troops are taking part in the operation, which President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said this week was pushing forward with the aim of capturing the Syrian city of al-Bab.

Turkish forces earlier in the year rolled into the Syrian border city of Jarablus under the declared aim of removing Daesh militants from the city. In September, the Turkish forces occupied the city, which they said Daesh had left without resistance.</s>BEIRUT -- The U.S. military suffered its first combat death in Syria on Thursday when a service member was killed in the northern part of the country, an area where the United States is helping organize an offensive against the Islamic State.

U.S. warplanes have been bombing targets inside Syria to help tens of thousands of militia fighters try to oust the Islamic State from Raqqa, the group's stronghold in the country.

U.S. forces are on the ground as well. More than 300 members of U.S. special operations forces are in Syria to help recruit, train and advise the Kurdish and Arab fighters who are trying to encircle the Islamic State in Raqqa, cut off its supplies and ultimately retake the city.

The special operations forces member who died Thursday was killed by an improvised explosive device in the vicinity of Ayn Issa in northern Syria, U.S. military officials said.

"I am deeply saddened by the news on this Thanksgiving Day that one of our brave service members has been killed in Syria while protecting us from the evil of ISIL," Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said in a statement, using one of the names for the Islamic State group. "It is a painful reminder of the dangers our men and women in uniform face around the world to keep us safe."

The area where the service member was killed is halfway between Raqqa and the Turkish border, and several factions have been active there, including the Syrian Kurds, the Islamic State and most recently tribal fighters who oppose the Kurds, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors extremist websites.

Also, 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 inside the country said the Turkish soldiers were killed by an Islamic State 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 Islamic State-run Aamaq news agency reported a suicide attack Wednesday against Turkish troops in a village near al-Bab.

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.

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 Islamic State positions in al-Bab and other northern Syrian towns, destroying a building reportedly used as an Islamic State 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.

Information for this article was contributed by Cinar Kiper, Suzan Fraser, Sarah El Deeb and Bassem Mroue of The Associated Press and by Alissa J. Rubin, Karam Shoumali, Eric Schmitt, Hwaida Saad and Safak Timur of The New York Times.</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).
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.