Turkey shells border posts near Syria’s Manbij, kills army soldiers

Turkish military forces have shelled the positions of Syrian government troops and their allied fighters from popular defense groups in the country’s northwestern province of Aleppo, leaving several soldiers dead and injured.

An unnamed military source told Syria’s official news agency SANA that Turkish forces lobbed a barrage of artillery rounds and rockets at Syrian border guard posts near the city of Manbij, located only 40 kilometers from the Turkish border, on Thursday.

The source added that the projectiles caused deaths and injuries, without providing an exact figure.

The military source further described the Turkish aggression on the Syrian territory an attempt to stop the progress of Syrian army forces and allied fighters in the fight against terrorist organizations.

On August 24, the Turkish air force and special ground forces kicked off Operation Euphrates Shield inside Syria in a declared bid to support Free Syrian Army militants and rid the border area of Daesh terrorists and fighters from the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) and the Democratic Union Party (PYD).

The offensive was launched in coordination with the US-led military coalition, which has purportedly been fighting Daesh extremists since 2014.