ANKARA, February 3. /TASS/. Turkey’s F-16 fighter jets and artillery have carried out strikes against 40 targets in Syria’s Idlib in response to the shelling of its troops, which had killed four soldiers, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters at a news conference in Ankara.
"Turkish F-16 jets and howitzers continue to strike targets of the [Assad] regime. About 40 locations began our targets. From 30 to 35 Syrians were neutralized as a result," the Turkish leader stressed. He did not specify whether those were Syrian army soldiers.
According to Turkey’s Ministry of National Defense, four Turkish military servicemen were killed and nine others were wounded when their positions were shelled near the inhabited community of Saraqib in Syria’s Idlib province. According to Ankara, Turkish troops were shelled by the Syrian army despite the fact that it had been notified in advance where the Turkish forces’ positions were located.