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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.
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.