Turkey on Tuesday carried out an air strike in northern Syria, near its border, killing at least 11 people, including Syrian government soldiers, The Associated Press reported, citing an opposition war monitor and a Kurdish media outlet.
The attack occurred just west of the northern town of Kobani and comes amid tensions in northern Syria between US-backed Kurdish fighters and Turkey-backed opposition gunmen.
Syrian state media quoted an unnamed military official as saying that the Turkish air strikes killed three soldiers and wounded six. The official said Syrian troops retaliated by targeting Turkish army positions and those of Turkey-backed opposition fighters.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said the Turkish air strike killed 11 people, adding that it was not immediately clear if they were all Syrian soldiers. It said eight people were also wounded, according to AP.
Ankara views Syria's Kurdish forces as "terrorists" linked to a 30-year Kurdish insurgency in Turkey.
Turkey's stance on the Kurds puts it at odds with the United States, which views the Kurds as key allies in its fight against ISIS.
Turkey has launched three major cross-border operations into Syria since 2016 and already controls some territories in the north.
Ankara launched a cross-border attack against Syria's Kurds in October of 2019 after the United States announced a military pullout from the north of the war-torn country. A US-brokered ceasefire was announced days later.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has continued to threaten the Kurds. In one instance, he warned that his country would restart its operation against Kurdish forces in Syria on Tuesday evening if they did not withdraw from the "safe zone".
Erdogan also warned that if there is no solution to the Kurdish crisis "Turkey will find a solution for itself" and threatened to “smash the heads of the Kurdish terrorists."