MOSCOW, November 20. /TASS/. An airstrike delivered by Turkey’s F-16 warplanes in Syrias Aleppo governorate caused casualties among civilians, Oleg Yegorov, deputy chief of the Russian Center for Reconciliation of the Opposing Parties in Syria (division of the Russian defense ministry), said on Sunday.

He recalled that Turkish F-16 warplanes had delivered strikes near the Syrian settlements of Afrin and Kobani on November 20.

"The strikes caused casualties both among civilians and Syrian soldiers," he said.

The Erbil-based Rudaw television channel reported earlier on Sunday that at least 15 Syrian soldiers were killed in Turkey’s massive strike at Kurdish areas in the Aleppo, Raqqa, and al-Hasakah governorates.

Turkey’s defense ministry reported that 89 targets had been destroyed during the night air attack in northern Iraq and Syria. The ministry claimed that strikes had been delivered at places of deployment of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party and Syrian Kurdish units that are outlawed in Turkey. The air strike was backed by artillery fire.

Experts say that Turkey’s cross-border operation in northern Iraq and Syria was a response to the November 13 terror attack in Istanbul, which left six people dead and more than 80 injured. Investigators place the blame for it on the Kurdistan Workers’ Party and People's Defense Units.