Turkish soldier killed in explosion targeting Turkish military convoy in Idlib countryside

North-Press Agency

On Wednesday, a Turkish soldier was killed in Idlib, northwestern Syria, as a result of an explosion on the M4 highway, the Turkish Ministry of Defense said in a statement quoted by the Turkish government’s Anadolu Agency.

The Ministry said in its statement that “due to unknown explosion while patrolling a road in Idlib area, one of the soldiers was injured and was immediately taken to the hospital, but he was martyred despite all efforts."

A mine exploded under a Turkish convoy on the Aleppo-Latakia (M4) highway, near the village of al-Ghassaniyeh in Jisr al-Shughour countryside, wounding members of the Turkish forces and the Turkish-backed armed opposition group accompanying them.

A field source told North-Press that the explosion caused injury to an officer and a member of the Turkish forces and a number of militants of the National Front for Liberation (a Turkish-backed Syrian opposition coalition) who were accompanying the convoy.

A military source from the National Front of Liberation who wished to remain anonymous told North-Press that a number of Turkish soldiers were wounded by a mine explosion which targeted the convoy, explaining that the convoy was heading to the Turkish point in the town of Ishtarbak in the western countryside of Idlib.

A Turkish helicopter entered Syrian airspace in the western countryside of Idlib to transport the wounded Turkish soldiers to Turkish hospitals.