Turkish military says 18 Islamic State militants killed in clashes in Syria

(Reuters) Turkey’s military, backing Syrian rebels in a four-month-old operation against Islamic State militants in northern Syria, said on Tuesday that 18 of the jihadists had been killed and 37 wounded in clashes and artillery fire on Monday.

In a round-up of its operations over the past 24 hours, the army said its warplanes destroyed four Islamic State targets and Russian aircraft hit jihadists in Dayr Kak, 8 km (5 miles) southwest of the Islamic State-controlled town of al-Bab.

Turkey, which openly provides military backing for Syrian anti-government armed rebels, launched the “Euphrates Shield” military operations last August to combat Islamic State militants holding the Syrian town of al-Bab, 30 Km from the Turkish borders.

Ankara’s involvement in the Syrian war has backfired with IS claiming several bloody attacks over the past year, with a most recent armed attack at a New Year’s eve celebration at a nightclub in Istanbul leaving 39 dead.

“As a nation, we will fight to the end against not just the armed attacks of terror groups and the forces behind them, but also against their economic, political and social attacks,” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a written statement following the attack.

“They are trying to create chaos, demoralize our people, and destabilize our country with abominable attacks which target civilians … We will retain our cool-headedness as a nation, standing more closely together, and we will never give ground to such dirty games,” he said.