Turkish Troops Deployed to Syria Test Positive for COVID-19
A total of 140 Turkish soldiers and police officers deployed to the mainly Kurdish-populated northern Syrian city of Afrin and elsewhere in the country’s Idlib province have tested positive for the coronavirus, a report said.
Governor of Turkey’s southernmost province of Hatay, Rahmi Dogan, said 120 police officers in Afrin and 20 soldiers at Idlib Air Battalion have been infected with the virus, Turkish media reported.
According to Dogan, there were no confirmed cases among civilians in those areas.
Cases of infection with the new coronavirus in Syria stand at 177, and the death toll is inching close to 10.
The number of people infected with COVID-19 across the world has surpassed 7,895,000 and the death toll has exceeded 432,000.
Turkish-backed militants were deployed to northern Syria last October after Turkish military forces launched a cross-border invasion in a declared attempt to push the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) militants away from border areas.
Ankara views the US-backed YPG as a terrorist organization tied to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been seeking an autonomous Kurdish region in Turkey since 1984.