Russians kill Turks in Syria ‘friendly fire’
A building in Syria with Turkish soldiers inside was bombed by a Russian warplane yesterday, killing at least three troops and wounding 11.
President Vladimir Putin called his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan to express regret over the “friendly fire” incident.
News of the deaths came as Turkey held funerals for five Turkish soldiers killed in an IS attack the day before. The Turkish military said Turkey and Russia were conducting a joint investigation.
A Russian warplane has bombed a building in northern Syria with Turkish soldiers inside, killing at least three troops and wounding 11.
President Vladimir Putin called his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to express regrets over the “friendly fire” incident. The Kremlin said Mr Putin conveyed his condolences over the “tragic incident”.
The airstrike took place on Thursday morning near the northern town of al-bab, which Turkish troops and Turkey-backed Syrian opposition fighters are trying to capture from Islamic State. News of the deaths came as Turkey was holding funerals for five Turkish soldiers killed in an IS attack the day before.
The Turkish military said Turkey and Russia were conducting a joint investigation.
Turkey and Russia recently repaired ties that were strained by Turkey’s downing of Russian jet near the border with Syria two years ago. In late December, the two countries brokered a ceasefire for Syria and in January they sponsored peace talks in Astana, Kazakhstan. Syrian rebels and president Bashar al-assad’s government officials attended that gathering.
Yesterday’s air strike deaths raise the number of Turkish troops killed in Turkey’s operation in Syria to 64.
In other developments in Syria, the Syrian Arab Red Crescent and the Red Cross said a suspected rebel mortar attack that hit a Red Crescent distribution centre in the government-held city of Aleppo the day before killed a volunteer and two civilians.
The attack in the Hamadaniya neighbourhood also saw seven volunteers wounded, the organisation said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that mortar rounds hit security checkpoints in the area on Wednesday. Syria’s state news agency said mortar shells hit other buildings in the neighbourhood.
After years of heavy fighting, Syrian government forces drove the rebels out of eastern Aleppo in December, but the opposition still holds some areas on the city’s outskirts. Fighting has continued around Aleppo and in other parts of Syria despite a Russia- and Turkey-sponsored ceasefire.
The ceasefire, in place since 30 December, has excluded areas where militant factions, IS and Syria’s al-qaeda affiliate operate or hold ground. Syrian government troops and allied militias, as well Turkish troops, the Us-led international coalition, and Russia have been going after IS in different parts of the country. The push has recently focused on the Is-held town of al-bab, north-east of Aleppo.