Deputy PM confirms 4 Turkish soldiers martyred in Syria

ANKARA

Turkey’s military has lost four soldiers and suffered 19 casualties during Operation Euphrates Shield in northern Syria, Deputy Prime Minister Nurettin Canikli confirmed Wednesday.

Canikli spoke to reporters after a cabinet meeting in Ankara and said: “By the fifteenth day of the operation, unfortunately, we have four martyrs and 19 injured so far.”

"Sixteen from the Free Syrian Army (FSA) have been martyred and 27 others have been injured. Nearly 110 Daesh, PYD and YPG terrorists were killed and there are five injured as well", he added.

The deputy PM said over 770 square kilometers [290 square miles] of territory had been cleared of Daesh and was now under the control of the FSA.

Canikli also said infrastructure work in the liberated Syrian city of Jarabulus would go on. He said Jarabulus would be supplied with water until next Monday and energy requirements would be met until Saturday.

Operation Euphrates Shield began Aug. 24 when the FSA, backed by the Turkish Armed Forces, liberated Jarabulus.

Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the regime of Bashar al-Assad cracked down on pro-democracy protests -- which erupted as part of the Arab Spring uprisings -- with unexpected ferocity.

Since then, more than a quarter of a million people have been killed and more than 10 million displaced across the war-torn country, according to the UN.

The Syrian Center for Policy Research, however, puts the death toll from the six-year conflict at more than 470,000 people.