Specialist Sergeant Mehmet Altun was killed in Operation Olive Branch territory, according to a statement by the governorate in Turkey’s Hatay province, which borders Afrin.

Altun was killed in clashes with groups that infiltrated the region, the Turkish Defense Ministry said in a tweet, pointing to Syrian-Kurdish led People’s Protection Units (YPG).

Turkey’s military and its Syrian rebel allies seized control of Afrin, a mainly Kurdish region, from the YPG in Operation Olive Branch in March 2018, one of a series of Turkish military incursions into northern Syria.

Turkey regards the YPG as a terrorist group over its alleged ties to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has fought for Kurdish autonomy in southeast Turkey since 1984.

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