ANKARA (Sputnik) — According to the statement, the total area under FSA's control in the north of Syria amounts to 1,620 square kilometers (some 625 square miles) and comprises 202 settlements.
"The Syrian opposition forces established control over the seven settlements in the area near the cities of Mari and Al-Rai. The Turkish armed forces destroyed 35 IS [Daesh] targets and six targets of the Syrian Kurds self-defense forces, killing ten Kurdish fighters, as well as destroying shelters, defensive positions, command posts, ammunition depots and vehicles of the terrorists. Among Syrian opposition forces nine were killed and 52 were injured, four Turkish fighters were also injured military in the APC shelling," the General Staff statement said.
It was also reported that 15 Daesh targets were destroyed during the operation of the Turkish air force.
On August 24, the Turkish forces, backed by US-led coalition aircraft, began a military operation dubbed Euphrates Shield aimed at freeing the Syrian northern territories from terrorists and creating security zones for accommodation of refugees. After liberating the Syrian border town of Jarabulus and the surrounding area of Daesh, outlawed in Russia and many other countries, the Turkish forces continued the offensive in the southwest direction.
Turkish forces regularly come into confrontation with the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), and its military wing People's Protection Units (YPG) operating in Syria, which Ankara considers to be an affiliate of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), outlawed in Turkey.
