Mortar fire kills 2 Turkish soldiers in Akcakale on Syria border

Two Turkish soldiers died when a mortar hit their post on the Syrian border, the defense ministry said Thursday.

"Two of our fellow comrades were martyred by a mortar attack" in Akcakale town, Sanliurfa province, on Wednesday, November 28, the Ministry of National Defense said in a statement.

It did not specify if the attack came from Syrian territory, but said Turkish forces responded with intense artillery fire.

Akcakale lies adjacent to Tel Abyad, in areas that were targeted in Turkey's offensive against the Syrian Democratic Forces in northeast Syria last month.

Turkey and allied Syrian rebel forces fighting under the banner of the Syrian National Army launched Operation Peace Spring on October 9 to push the SDF out of an area along the Syria-Turkey border.

Ankara considers the SDF and its predominately- Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) to be an extension of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) which has waged a decades-long insurgency in Turkey.

With reporting from AFP