DHAKA: Turkey has suffered its first loss of life in an intensifying campaign in northern Syria.

The military said a soldier was killed when Kurdish fighters fired on tanks. Kurdish media say three tanks were destroyed.

Turkish armor crossed the border earlier this week in an operation aimed at so-called Islamic State but also at Kurdish forces in the area, reports the BBC.

Elsewhere in Syria activists said at least 15 people were killed in a barrel bomb attack in Aleppo.

Saturday saw clashes between Turkish tanks and Kurdish forces near Jarablus, a border town Turkey helped Syrian rebels recapture from IS on Wednesday.

Turkish planes bombarded positions south of the town, in what one group allied with Kurdish rebels called a “dangerous escalation”.

Three other soldiers were wounded in the clash with Kurdish fighters.

Turkey has vowed to continue the campaign until there is no longer a ‘terror’ threat from its neighbour, likely to refer both to IS and to the Kurds.

It fears Kurdish fighters gaining an unbroken strip of territory along its border, which would be a huge boost to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a banned Kurdish rebel group fighting for autonomy in Turkey.

The Turkish move further complicates the already protracted Syrian civil war. Both Turkey and Kurdish rebels are US allies.

BDST: 0928 HRS, AUG 28, 2016
BD