Ankara: Turkey says it will retaliate after three of its soldiers were killed in what the military said was a suspected Syrian air strike, the first such deaths at the hands of Syrian government forces since Ankara launched a cross-border incursion in August.
The attack occurred at around 3.30am local time on Thursday during a Turkish-backed Syrian rebel operation in northern Syria, the Turkish military said in a statement.
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It said 10 other soldiers were wounded in the air strike that it "assessed to have been carried out by Syrian regime forces". It gave no details on the exact location.
"It is clear that some people are not happy with this battle Turkey has been fighting against Daesh (Islamic State). This attack will surely have a retaliation," Prime Minister Binali Yildirim told reporters in the Turkish capital, Ankara.
Direct confrontation between NATO-member Turkey and Syrian government forces, which are backed by allies including Russia, would mark a serious escalation in an already messy battlefield in northern Syria.
Turkey is part of the US-led coalition against Islamic State, but Washington has said it is not providing support for the three-month-old Turkish offensive in Syria as it moves towards the Islamic State-held city of al-Bab.
There was no immediate comment from the Syrian military, but it said in October the presence of Turkish troops on Syrian soil was a "flagrant breach of Syria's sovereignty" and warned it would bring down Turkish warplanes entering its air space.
Security and hospital sources in Turkey earlier blamed Islamic State fighters for the attack and said it was in the al-Bab region. The wounded soldiers were transferred to hospitals in the Turkish border provinces of Kilis and Gaziantep, they said.
![Turkey's Prime Minister Binali Yildirim has blamed the Syrian government for air strikes that killed Turkish soldiers on ...](/web/20161126090539im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/x/4/p/o/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gsx4ni.png/1480002269617.jpg)
The attack came on the first anniversary of Turkey shooting down a Russian warplane over Syria, which prompted a lengthy diplomatic rift between Moscow and Ankara that only ended in August.
Aleppo rebels agree humanitarian aid plan
![The aftermath of an air strike on Aleppo's Seif al-Dawleh neighbourhood last week. The UN says it has a new plan to get ...](/web/20161126090539im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/x/4/p/t/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gsx4ni.png/1480002269617.jpg)
Also on Thursday, Syrian rebels in besieged east Aleppo agreed to a United Nations plan for aid delivery and medical evacuations, but the UN is awaiting a green light from Russia and the Syrian government, humanitarian adviser Jan Egeland said.
With freezing winter conditions setting in, about 275,000 people are trapped in east Aleppo, where the last UN food rations were distributed on November 13.
Hundreds of trucks are ready in Turkey and government-controlled west Aleppo to bring food and medicines to the eastern sector, but the United Nations needs 72 hours once it has all approvals to prepare a "big, complex and dangerous operation", Mr Egeland said.
"We do now have written approval in principle by the armed opposition groups of east Aleppo," he told reporters, referring to rebels with whom the UN is in contact, which do not include former Nusra Front militants.
"We have verbal support also from the Russian Federation on our four-point plan. We need written support and we need unconditional support also from Russia and we are waiting still for the answer from the government of Syria."
Mr Egeland hoped the plan, which includes rotation of the 30 doctors still in eastern Aleppo, can be carried out "in the next few days".
"We want to try to launch a system that could get out of this horrific situation that medical facilities, clinics, hospitals are attacked again and again and again," he said.
Hundreds of wounded await evacuation for treatment under the plan, he said.
Asked about any 'Plan B', he replied: "In many ways, Plan B is that people starve. And can we allow that to happen? No, we cannot allow that to happen."
An estimated 974,000 Syrians live in besieged areas, including 850,000 encircled by government forces and the rest trapped by Islamic State militants and other rebels, the UNÂ says.
Reuters