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Turkish soldier killed in clashes with Isis across Syrian border Turkey sends fighter jets to Syrian border after soldier killed in clashes
(about 1 hour later)
One Turkish solider has been killed and another wounded in clashes with Islamic State across the Syrian border, a senior Turkish official said. The clashes continued as the Turkish army returned fire on the militants in Syria. Turkey has scrambled fighter jets to the Syrian border after one soldier was killed and two wounded in cross-border clashes which appeared to signal the first armed confrontation between the country’s forces and the terror group Islamic State.
Earlier, a Turkish police officer was shot and killed and a second wounded in the mainly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir. Violence along Turkey’s 560-mile (900km) border with Syria has spiked in recent days, beginning with a suicide bombing blamed on Isis in the town of Suruç on Monday. The state-run Anadolu news agency said a non-commissioned officer was killed after shots were fired from across the border in Syria into the southern province of Kilis, with Turkey responding by pounding militant positions with artillery and reportedly killing one Isis fighter.
The Diyarbakir shooting came a day after two police officers were killed in an attack in Ceylanpinar on the Syrian border claimed by militants from the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Local media said F-16 fighter jets were scrambled from their base in Diyarbakir to the Syrian border.
Authorities said a 20-year-old Turkish citizen with links to Isis blew himself up on Monday in Suruç, about 100 miles from Ceylanpinar, killing 32 people and wounding more than 100 others. The victims included Kurds. “Unfortunately, one of our non-commissioned officers has been martyred and two sergeants injured,” said Suleyman Tapsiz, the governor of Kilis.
Turkey announced on Thursday that it was building a “modular wall” along part of its border with Syria, reinforcing wire fencing and digging extra ditches. Related: 'Isis suicide bomber' strikes Turkish border town as Syrian war spills over
The wall is around 90 miles long and can be broken up and reassembled elsewhere. Flood-lighting will also be installed along a 73-mile stretch while border patrol roads will be repaired in upgrades costing about $86m, a senior government official said. The clashes are the latest sign of violent spillover from the Syrian civil war, now in its fifth year, into Turkey. Earlier this week, a suicide bomber targeting a gathering of Kurdish and Turkish activists in the southern city of Suruc killed 32 people in an attack that Turkish officials blamed on Isis.
The armed forces were also digging a 225-mile long ditch along the border and have deployed around 90% of drones and reconnaissance aircraft to the Syrian border, the military said. Turkey has long been a waypoint for foreign fighters entering Syria to join Isis, and the country backs a number of rebel groups fighting against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria.
Turkey’s armed forces had already stepped up security in recent weeks while the country’s Nato allies had long expressed concern about its control of the border with Syria, parts of which run parallel with territory controlled by Isis. The attack on Monday in the south-eastern town of Suruç highlighted fears about the conflict spilling on to Turkish soil. On Wednesday the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, discussed efforts to stem the flow of foreign fighters into Syria in a telephone call with the US president, Barack Obama.
“Critical sections [of the border] have been identified. Priority will be given to these areas and measures will be taken with all technological capabilities,” said the deputy prime minister, Bülent Arınç, during a break in a cabinet meeting late on Wednesday. Turkish media reports said Ankara had agreed to allow the American-led coalition against Isis access to the Incirlik air base, a softening of the country’s position after it adamantly refused access to the military facility in the past.
But Thursday’s clashes signaled a further escalation in the fight, one that threatens to draw Turkey, which hosts 1.7 million Syrian refugees and has a 560-mile, porous border with Syria, further into the conflict.
Turkey has been more concerned in recent months with Kurdish expansionism in northern Syria, as militias allied with Syrian rebels swept through a large tract of land near the Turkish border, ousting Isis from a number of towns including the key border crossing of Tal Abyad.
Turkey began reinforcing its border with Syria in the wake of the Suruc attack, building a “modular wall” along part of its border and reinforcing wire fencing and digging extra ditches.