BEIRUT — The US military suffered its first combat death in Syria on Thursday when a service member was killed in the northern part of the country, an area where the United States is helping organize an offensive against the Islamic State.
US warplanes have been bombing targets inside Syria to help tens of thousands of militia fighters try to oust the Islamic State from Raqqa, the group’s stronghold in the country.
US forces are on the ground as well. More than 300 members of the US Special Operations Forces are in Syria to help recruit, train, and advise the Kurdish and Arab fighters who are trying to encircle the Islamic State in Raqqa, cut off its supplies, and ultimately retake the city.
The Special Operations Forces member who died Thursday was killed by an improvised explosive device in the vicinity of Ayn Issa in northern Syria, US military officials said.
“I am deeply saddened by the news on this Thanksgiving Day that one of our brave service members has been killed in Syria while protecting us from the evil of ISIL,’’ Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter said in a statement, using one of the names for the Islamic State. “It is a painful reminder of the dangers our men and women in uniform face around the world to keep us safe.’’
Although the Obama administration has sought to limit the number of US soldiers in the fight against the Islamic State, the death Thursday shows how volatile and deadly the campaign against the group is in Syria and Iraq. US service members have been killed in Iraq as well, and this month the United States acknowledged killing 119 civilians in Iraq and Syria since it began military operations against the Islamic State in 2014.
The area where the service member was killed Thursday is halfway between Raqqa and the Turkish border, and several factions have been active there, including the Syrian Kurds, the Islamic State, and most recently local tribal fighters who oppose the Kurds, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors extremist websites.
Three Turkish soldiers were killed Thursday by Syrian planes, the Turkish military announced. It was the first time Turkish soldiers had been killed by Syrian government forces while fighting inside Syria since the civil war there began, the Turkish military said.
The Turkish troops were moving toward Al Bab, a northern city held by the Islamic State, near the border with Turkey, the military said.
The announcement that three soldiers were killed and 10 were wounded heightened the tensions between Syria and Turkey, neighbors with powerful allies. The Syrian government is backed by Russia and Iran. Turkey, a member of NATO, began a major offensive in northern Syria in August as part of its fight against the Islamic State.
Turkey’s prime minister, Binali Yildirim, told Hurriyet, a leading Turkish newspaper, that the attack would “not be left unanswered,’’ and he said it would not deter his country’s army from its mission in northern Syria.
Yildirim also reaffirmed the assessment of Turkey’s military chief, General Hulusi Akar, that the attack was carried out by Syrian government warplanes.
Some on the ground raised questions about whether the strike was undertaken by Syrian government forces. A network of activists who monitor the skies over Syria said Thursday that its watchers had spotted a Syrian aircraft taking off after 2 a.m. and also a Russian aircraft at about the same time as the strike on Turkish forces occurred. It is impossible to know where the planes that were sighted went; they could easily have had another destination, the network said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a network based in Britain that monitors news from Syria, said the strike was by the Islamic State. But the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, is not known to have combat aircraft.
