First Turkish soldier killed during Syria operation
Akcakale (Turkey): Turkey said Friday that one of its soldiers was killed in northern Syria, the first such fatality in its offensive against a Kurdish militia.
Three more soldiers were injured in the "operation region", the defence ministry said in a statement after clashes with the militia on Thursday. It gave no further details.
Fighting broke out in several locations along the roughly 120-kilometre (75-mile) wide front where operations are focused, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and a Kurdish military official said Thursday.
Turkey Wednesday began an air and ground offensive supporting Syrian rebels against the US-backed Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia.
Ankara has long opposed US support for the YPG in the fight against the Islamic State extremist group, arguing the militia is a "terrorist" offshoot of Kurdish insurgents inside Turkey.
The ministry's statement comes after shelling from the militia into Turkey and Turkish military strikes in northern Syria, with casualties on both sides.
Seven civilians including a nine-month-old baby were killed in Turkish border towns in Sanliurfa and Mardin provinces. Nearly 70 were injured.
According to the UK-based Observatory, which relies on a network of sources in Syria, at least 29 fighters and 10 civilians have been killed in the war-ravaged country since the start of the assault.
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Six bodies recovered so far from site of Arunachal accident, many still missing
Itanagar (PTI): Six bodies were retrieved on Friday from the deep gorge in Arunachal Pradesh's Anjaw district, where a mini-truck on which 22 people from Assam were travelling fell, police said.
The operation was initiated by a joint team of the NDRF and Army at the first light of day, Anjaw SP Anurag Dwivedi informed.
"The retrieval process was extremely difficult because of the treacherous terrain. The gorge is very deep," he said.
Eighteen bodies have been spotted at the site, and the search for the remaining three missing would continue after the retrieval of these bodies, he said.
The operation to retrieve the rest of the bodies will resume on Saturday morning, he added.
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All those travelling in the vehicle were labourers from Assam's Tezpur district. The accident happened on the evening of December 8, around 40 km from Hayuliang towards Chaglagam.
On the evening of December 10, one survivor managed to climb out of the gorge and reach a nearby Border Roads Task Force (BRTF) labour camp. The officer commanding the BRTF subsequently alerted the district authorities, officials said.
State Disaster Management Secretary Dani Salu said that, considering the extremely treacherous terrain and unreliable weather, a rescue attempt on the night of December 10 was deemed unsafe.
He said the next day, the Army, BRTF, local police, and district administration launched a full-scale operation to retrieve the bodies.
Salu said the identities of 18 bodies have been established so far.
He said the mini-truck was privately owned, and the labourers were being transported by a private contractor.
"The private contractor has been taken to the police station for questioning," he said.
Mourning the loss of lives in the accident, Chief Minister Pema Khandu lauded the Army, BRO, the NDRF, and the local administration for their swift response to the crisis in such a challenging terrain.
