By the Associated Press
Turkey's defense ministry says one soldier has been killed amid sporadic clashes with Kurdish fighters in northern Syria, despite a US-brokered cease-fire.
In this image provided by Turkish Red Crescent, Turkish Red Crescent vehicles arrive to deliver aid to Syrians in Ras Al-Ayn, Syria, Saturday, Oct. 19, 2019. Turkish Red Crescent says it has delivered humanitarian aid for 2000 people in Ras Al-Ayn, including flour with other food and hygiene materials to follow. The organization said it also provided aid to Tal Abyad and will continue to do so in areas cleared by the Turkish and the Turkish-backed forces, from fighters from Kurdish People's Protection Units, or YPG. (Fatih Isci/Turkish Red Crescent via AP/MANILA BULLETIN)
Sunday's ministry statement said that Syrian Kurdish fighters have violated the three-day-old cease-fire some 20 times.
The statement said the soldier was killed during an observation shift earlier in the day, in an attack by anti-tank weapons and small arms fire, bringing Turkey's military death toll up to seven soldiers in its wide-ranging offensive against Syrian Kurdish forces.
The ministry also said it allowed a 39-vehicle humanitarian convoy to enter Ras al-Ayn, a key border town that's seen some of the heaviest fighting. It said the convoy evacuated wounded and others.
Turkey considers the Syrian Kurdish groups terrorists for their links to a decades-long Kurdish insurgency inside Turkey.