Syrian soldiers die in Turkish border raid

The strikes were part of a ­renewed assault ordered by ­President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Kurdish-held parts of the country.

A woman on Thursday mourns a fighter from the Syrian Democratic Forces killed in a Turkish drone strike on the northeastern town of Amuda. Picture: AFP

Turkish airstrikes have killed at least three Assad regime border guards during a flare-up of fighting in the northeast of Syria.

The strikes were part of a ­renewed assault ordered by ­President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Kurdish-held parts of the country, divided as a result of its long civil war.

It is not clear whether the Turkish army realised that the targets of some of its shelling were Syrian soldiers, but the Assad regime has threatened retaliation. It said three soldiers were killed.

Local reports put the total death toll at up to 17 but it was not clear how many of those were soldiers and how many were militia and others.

At least five of the dead were members of the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces, killed in a drone strike on the northeastern town of Amuda on Tuesday.

“Any attack on a military outpost run by our armed forces will be met with a direct and immediate response on all fronts,” the Syrian state news agency said.

The deaths would appear to contradict assertions by Mr Erdogan’s government that it wanted to see “reconciliation” with dictator Bashar al-Assad, including by rebels it supports in the Syrian war.

The Turkish Defence Ministry said its troops had killed 13 “terrorists” in artillery strikes after a cross-border mortar attack in which one of its own soldiers had been killed and four injured. It added that “operations continued” but made no mention of the regime border post.

Since the uprising against Assad failed and the regime was able to regain control of most of the country five years ago, Mr Erdogan has played a complex game to preserve its interests in Syria with Assad’s backers, Iran and Russia, as well as with Turkey’s historical allies in NATO. That includes being allowed by all sides to attack positions in Syria that he believes are loyal to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the anti-Turkey Kurdish guerrilla group of which the dominant Kurdish faction in northeast Syria is an offshoot.

Attacks on northeast Syria have to be careful not to cross red lines set by the US, which works in co-operation with the Syrian Democratic Forces, which is politically dominated by the Kurds.

Mr Erdogan has also been trying to co-ordinate with Russia, even though Ankara and Moscow backed opposite sides in the conflict. Mr Erdogan does this in part by acting as a mediator with the West for Moscow.

A telling sign of this triangulation came when Mr Erdogan negotiated a deal between Russia and Ukraine to allow the export of Ukrainian grain from Black Sea ports. The first shipment, on board a Sierra Leone-flagged cargo ship called the Razoni, was originally said to be heading for Lebanon but on Tuesday the ship was seen unloading its grain in the Syrian port of Tartus, which is controlled by the Assad regime and is also home to a Russian naval base.

THE TIMES