Turkish fire kills 10 civilians in IS-held Syria: monitor

The bombardment hit the northern town of Al-Bab and the nearby area of Tadif, both held by IS, on Thursday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Al-Bab has come under heavy assault in recent weeks, with Turkish, Russian and Syrian warplanes carrying out strikes in or around the town. The Observatory says it determines whose planes carry out raids according to their type, location, flight patterns and the munitions involved.

Turkish forces regularly carry our air strikes in support of a ground operation it launched in Syria last August targeting both IS and Kurdish fighters. Several this month have been joint operations with Russia.

But Turkish officials insist the utmost is done to avoid any civilian casualties and have vehemently denied claims civilians have been killed in previous strikes.

Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency reported on Friday that 22 IS “terrorists” had been killed in the latest round of Turkish strikes on Syria, against a total of 272 IS targets.

IS is not included in a fragile nationwide ceasefire in force since December 30 that led to peace negotiations jointly organised by Turkey, Russia and Iran in Kazakhstan this week.

There was no major breakthrough in the talks, which brought a government delegation together for indirect talks with representatives of armed groups for the first time.

Ankara has backed rebel groups fighting against President Bashar al-Assad since the conflict began with anti-government protests in March 2011.

Moscow and Tehran have supported the government.