This photo provided by the Ibaa News Agency the media arm of al-Qaida’s branch in Syria shows part of a Russian plane that was shot down by rebel fighters over northwest Idlib province in Syria, Saturday, Feb. 3, 2018. A Russian pilot who ejected from his fighter jet after it was shot down in northwestern Syria on Saturday was killed by militants after he landed alive on the ground and resisted capture by an al-Qaida-linked group, Syrian monitors and a Syrian militant said. Moscow did not confirm the downing of its plane or the killing of a pilot in Syria. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Russian pilot was dead but had no further details. (Ibaa News Agency via AP)
This photo provided by the Ibaa News Agency the media arm of al-Qaida’s branch in Syria shows part of a Russian plane that was shot down by rebel fighters over northwest Idlib province in Syria, Saturday, Feb. 3, 2018. A Russian pilot who ejected from his fighter jet after it was shot down in northwestern Syria on Saturday was killed by militants after he landed alive on the ground and resisted capture by an al-Qaida-linked group, Syrian monitors and a Syrian militant said. Moscow did not confirm the downing of its plane or the killing of a pilot in Syria. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Russian pilot was dead but had no further details. (Ibaa News Agency via AP)

Beirut — Turkey said eight of its troops were killed on Saturday in Ankara’s military operation against a Syrian Kurdish militia, the deadliest day in the two-week-old offensive in the enclave of Afrin, while in another part of Syria, al-Qaida-linked militants downed a Russian fighter jet, then shot and killed the pilot.

In a statement late Saturday, the Turkish military said five soldiers were killed after their tank in Syria came under attack near Afrin. The soldiers could not be saved despite all attempts, it said.

Earlier in the day, three Turkish soldiers were reported killed in the Afrin offensive — one was killed in the area of the tank attack, another in northern Syria and the third on the Turkish side of the border in what Ankara said was an attack by Syrian Kurdish militiamen.

The total death toll for Turkish troops since the operation, codenamed Olive Branch, started on Jan. 20 now stands at 13.

Turkey launched the incursion into Afrin to rout the U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish militia, known as the People’s Protection Units or YPG, which it considers to be a terrorist organization and an extension of Kurdish insurgents fighting within Turkey.

From Istanbul, Turkish presidential spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin, said Turkey will not tolerate the presence of the YPG “anywhere” along its southern border, hinting that Ankara might expand the Afrin operation eastward. Turkey’s first demand is to see the YPG move east of the Euphrates River and leave the town of Manbij, where American troops backing the Syrian Kurdish fighters are stationed, Kalin said.

He called on the United States to “disengage” from the YPG and said Turkey will continue communications with “our American allies to avoid any confrontation.”

Turkey shares a border with Syria. The YPG controls much of the territory along the border and an uninterrupted strip from Manbij to the Iraqi border.

Meanwhile, in the embattled northwestern province of Idlib, al-Qaida-linked militants said they downed a Russian fighter jet and killed its pilot after he ejected from the plane and landed on the ground.

The pilot resisted being captured and fired at the militants who then shot and killed him, according to one of the militants and Syrian monitors.