Turkish Troop Losses Mount After Clash With Assad Forces
Turkish Troop Losses Mount After Clash With Assad Forces by David Gauthier-Villars and Nazih Osseiran – Wall Street Journal
Five Turkish soldiers were killed during a clash with Syrian government forces in northwestern Syria, raising the country’s troop losses to 13 over the past week and testing Turkey’s resolve to support rebels in an area that President Bashar al-Assad has vowed to reclaim.
Turkish authorities said its soldiers were killed by Syrian army shelling on Monday in Idlib province, where Ankara has stationed troops at 12 observation posts. Turkish officials said the Turkish military had retaliated and sent cross-border convoys to beef up its military presence in Idlib.
Twelve Syrian army troops were killed in the fighting, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based war monitor…