Two Turkish soldiers were killed in the rebel-held northwestern Syrian province of Idlib, officials said Thursday, the country's first reported casualties since a ceasefire began earlier this month.
A ceasefire was agreed in Idlib - the last Syrian outpost out of the control of President Bashar al-Assad's forces - between rebel-backer Turkey and regime-ally Russia which entered into force on March 6. It has largely held.
But Turkey's ruling party deputy chairman, Mahir Unal, said on Twitter Thursday that a soldier was killed in a "heinous attack" in the Idlib town of Muhambal.
Unal did not say who was responsible for the attack.
The governor's office of the central Turkish province of Sivas tweeted that a 25-year-old soldier from the area was also killed in the Syrian region.
The governorate provided no details on how the soldier was killed or exactly where.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Tuesday that four regime fighters and a rebel were killed in clashes in southern Idlib.
Ankara hopes the ceasefire will stem a months-long government assault on the jihadist-dominated region, which is home to some three million people.. Nearly a million in Idlib were forced to flee towards the Turkish border during a regime-led offensive underway since December, which killed around 500 civilians.
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