Turkish Defense Minister Has 'No Thought of Soldiers Entering Syria'

The Turkish defense minister denied reports that Ankara had sent 100 soldiers to Syria, and underscored Turkey had no plans of doing this in the future.

ANKARA/MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Turkish Defense Minister Ismet Yilmaz refuted media reports on Monday claiming the country’s 100 servicemen entered Syria, stressing there were no such plans for the future.

"That is not true… There is no thought of Turkish soldiers entering Syria," Yilmaz told a Turkish parliamentary commission, as cited by the local Haberturk television channel.

The minister also denied reports that Saudi Arabian warplanes had arrived at southern Turkish base of Incirlik to bomb Daesh jihadists, admitting, though, that a decision to send four F-16 jets had been reached with the Saudi counterparts.

Earlier in the day, the country’s General Staff said that a Turkish soldier had been killed in an exchange of fire with a group at the Syrian border attempting to cross into Turkey illegally.

On Saturday, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Turkish forces shelled Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) positions in northern Syria as a retaliatory measure within rules of engagement. The attacks continued on Sunday.

Ankara considers the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) to be an affiliate of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), an organization seeking Kurdish independence that has fought the Turkish state since 1984.