Turkey has carried out a series of airstrikes on the Syrian city of al-Bab.
According to the Turkish military, the airstrikes were conducted against alleged ISIS targets in the city of al-Bab, located some 40 kilometers northeast of Aleppo, shortly before 8 a.m. local time (0500 GMT) on Friday.
The Turkish military also stated that three of its soldiers were killed and 10 more wounded in an air strike allegedly launched by Syrian government forces the day before.
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Syrian president Bashar al-Assad had warned Turkey last month against making any advance toward their positions to the north and east of Aleppo.
Press TV reports:
The latest strikes were carried out after three Turkish soldiers were killed in the area on Wednesday. Turkey on Thursday claimed that a suspected Syrian airstrike had killed the three.
Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Thursday that Ankara would retaliate against the Syrian army, which has not commented on the developments.
The accusation and the threat of retaliation against Syria came even as the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a pro-militant monitoring group, said the Turkish soldiers had been killed in an attack by Daesh.
Rami Abdulrahman, who runs the Britain-based group, dismissed reports that it was an airstrike, saying that the soldiers were killed during an attack by Daesh in the rural area of al-Bab, near a village called Waqqah on Wednesday.
A fourth soldier reportedly died in clashes with Daesh in the city on Friday.
In its military incursion into Syria, the Turkish military is supporting militants, including the so-called Free Syrian Army (FSA), fighting to topple the government of President Bashar al-Assad.
Hundreds of Turkish troops are taking part in the operation, which President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said this week was pushing forward with the aim of capturing the Syrian city of al-Bab.
Turkish forces earlier in the year rolled into the Syrian border city of Jarablus under the declared aim of removing Daesh militants from the city. In September, the Turkish forces occupied the city, which they said Daesh had left without resistance.
