Turkish forces enter Syria to rescue soldiers, Ottoman tomb

Turkish soldiers launched an overnight raid into neighboring Syria, evacuating dozens of besieged troops guarding an Ottoman tomb and moving the crypt Sunday back to Turkey after ceremonially planting the country's crescent-and-star flag.

In a one-line report on the incident, Syria's state news agency denounced what it called a "blatant aggression" by Turkey.

The mission, saving Turkish soldiers reportedly stuck for months at the tomb of the grandfather of the founder of the Ottoman Empire, saw hundreds of troops backed by tanks cross the border near the border town of Kobani once besieged by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

Turkey was widely criticized for not intervening for months in the Kobane battle, which finally saw Kurdish fighters backed by U.S.-led airstrikes push out ISIL.

"We had given the Turkish armed forces a directive to protect our spiritual values and the safety of our armed forces personnel," Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said in televised remarks.

Nearly 600 Turkish soldiers on some 100 tanks and armored personnel carriers crossed into Syria on Saturday night, as drones and airplanes flew reconnaissance missions overhead, Davutoglu said Sunday.

One group traveled to the tomb, some 22 miles from Turkey on the banks of the Euphrates River in Syria's embattled Aleppo province, Davutoglu said. Another group seized an area only 200 yards from the Turkish border in Syria's Ashma region, according to a statement from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's office.

One soldier was killed in an "accident" during the operation, Turkey's military said, without elaborating.

Turkish media later showed nationalistic images of three Turkish soldiers raising the country's flag at the new site.

"Before the Turkish flag was lowered at [the tomb], the Turkish flag started to be waved at another location in Syria," Davutoglu said. He said troops destroyed the complex once housing the tomb.

The U.S.-led coalition forces were informed of the Turkish operation after its launch to prevent any casualties, Davutoglu said. U.S. officials offered no immediate comment.

There had been rumors for months that the soldiers stationed at the tomb had been besieged by militants from ISIL, which hold a third of Syria and neighboring Iraq in their self-declared caliphate. Some 40 Turkish soldiers once guarded the tomb, making them a target for the ISIL and other armed fighters in Syria's long-running civil war, though the overnight operation apparently saw no fighting.

The tomb belonged to Suleyman Shah, the grandfather of Osman I, founder of the Ottoman Empire. The site along the Euphrates River is revered by Turkey, a strongly nationalist country whose rights there stem from a 1921 treaty with France, then the colonial power in Syria. The Ottoman Empire collapsed in the early 20th century after World War I.

In the 1970s, Turkey moved the mausoleum to its last location because the old site at a castle further south in Syria was to be inundated by the waters of a new dam.

Shah, a Turkic leader, is believed to have drowned in the Euphrates in the 13th century. His followers headed north into what is today Turkey, where they launched the Ottoman Empire. Some historians question official accounts about the Shah's tomb, saying they might have been retrospectively concocted to enrich an imperial identity for Turks.

Turkey has wanted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad overthrown and has backed some rebels fighting against him. Earlier this week, Turkey signed an agreement with the U.S. to train and arm Syrian rebels fighting against ISIL.

The Syrian government said in a statement that Turkey would be held responsible for failing to wait for an agreement from Damascus before proceeding with the operation. It also said that the fact that ISIL had not attacked the tomb "confirmed the depth of the ties between the Turkish government and this terrorist organization.”

Syria has Turkey of supporting armed groups fighting Assad that have seized control of wide areas of northern and eastern Syria, including ISIL.

With its 750-mile border with Syria, Turkey could be a major player in the fight against ISIL. But negotiations with the U.S. over what to do about the feared armed group have been fraught with disagreement — with Turkey insisting that the coalition needs to also target the Assad government.

Turkey also has had concerns over some of the Kurdish fighters battling ISIL in Kobane. It views the Kurds fighting in Syria as an extension of the Kurdistan Worker's Party, which has waged a 30-year insurgency against the Turkish government and is designated as a terrorist group by the U.S. and NATO.

Wire services