ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey’s defense ministry says a mortar attack killed two soldiers at a border post in the town of Akcakale on the Syria-Turkey border.
A ministry statement Thursday said Turkish artillery units returned fire immediately after the attack, which took place the previous evening.
The private DHA news agency says the mortar round was fired from an area near the Syrian town of Tal Abyad and injured at least two other soldiers.
Turkish troops and Turkey-backed opposition fighters took control of Tal Abyad and other border towns in an offensive last month to drive away Syrian Kurdish fighters from the border area.
Ankara views the Kurdish fighters as terrorists for their links to a Kurdish insurgency inside Turkey. The fighters had, however, partnered with the U.S. against the Islamic State group.