Little-known groups target Turkish military presence in Syria
Two little-known groups in northwest Syria are claiming responsibility for attacks against Turkish troops in the area, which some say may benefit al-Qaeda against Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.
IDLIB, Syria — A group that goes by the name of Ansar Abu Bakr al-Siddiq Brigade has claimed responsibility for an attack against Turkish forces as they crossed the Bab al-Hawa/Idlib road near the village of Kafraya, east of Idlib city in northwest Syria.
The Turkish Defense Ministry said May 11 on its Twitter account that the attack on a Turkish army convoy killed one soldier and wounded four others.
Turkish reports said the soldier who was killed was a 30-year-old infantry lieutenant named Osman Alp. His body was transported to his hometown of Manisa in western Turkey where he received a military funeral.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitoring group, said May 11 that ambulances rushed to the scene of the explosion and transported several wounded Turkish soldiers, some of them in critical condition. It noted that Turkish troops cordoned off the area for hours, preventing access to it.
