Three Turkish soldiers killed in Syria car bomb attack

ISTANBUL - A car bomb attack killed 10 people, including three Turkish soldiers, in an area of northern Syria controlled by Turkish forces on Thursday, a war monitor and Ankara, bringing the death toll to 7 soldiers in eight days.

"Three of our brothers-in-arms fell as martyrs in a car bomb attack at a traffic stop," Turkey's defence ministry said in a statement, without adding further details.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group had earlier said the three soldiers and seven Turkish-backed fighters died in the blast in the village of Suluk, about 20 kilometres (12 miles) southeast of the Syrian border town of Tal Abyad.

Turkish soldiers supporting Syrian proxies launched an offensive against the US-backed Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia in October last year.

Another Four Turkish soldiers were killed in a car bomb attack on January 8 during a roadside security check in the region east of the Euphrates river in Syria, where Turkey carried out a military operation with allied Syrian rebels in October.

Car bomb attacks have intensified against Turkish soldiers in northern Syria since Turkey seized the Syrian province of Tal Abyad in a military operation last October, as Turkey seems to be sucked into a murky quagmire.

Ankara deems the YPG a "terrorist" offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has waged an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984.

Turkey's soldiers and their Syrian proxies are regularly targeted in attacks in northern Syria, the latest coming last week, when four Turkish soldiers were killed by a car bomb.