RUSSIA apologised yesterday for accidentally killing three Turkish soldiers in an air raid in northern Syria.

Eleven Turkish soldiers were also injured when the air strike hit a building near al-Bab, the Isis-occupied town north-east of Aleppo where Syrian forces are also fighting.

Russian President Vladimir Putin promptly called his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan to express regret over the “tragic incident.”

Mr Putin blamed the “friendly-fire” on a lack of co-operation between Moscow and Ankara. The two countries are both conducting an investigation into the incident.

Earlier the Kurdish Hawar News agency had claimed the Syrian air force was responsible, firing five air strikes on Mount Sheikh Aqil and killing and injuring “dozens of the Turkish occupying army and their mercenaries.”

And Lebanon’s Al-Masdar News reported Turkish officers had taken to social media to blame Damascus — which the Syrian armed forces denied.

Turkey is supporting Syrian rebels to capture the town of al-Bab from Isis fighters.

The rebels later claimed it had clashed with Syrian troops south-west of al-Bab.

Pro-insurgent activists blamed Russia earlier this week for at least 15 deaths in an air strike on the city of Idlib, southwest of Aleppo, occupied by the al-Qaida affiliated Levant Conquest Front.

But on Wednesday the Pentagon said the US Air Force had bombed the city last Friday and Saturday, killing “10 terrorists” at an “al-Qaida meeting place” in the first raid and Abu Hani al-Masri, alleged founder of several al-Qaida training camps in Afghanistan, in the second.

On Wednesday night an Israeli helicopter launched missiles into Syria on the pretext that an artillery shell had landed in the Golan Heights — Syrian land occupied by Israel since 1967.

The Israeli military said the attack struck “a post belonging to the Syrian regime.”

But Damascus said it hit a residential building in al-Baath City in Quneitra province, where Syria has accused Israel of supporting al-Qaida extremists with its frequent attacks.

And yesterday insurgents on the outskirts of Aleppo shelled a Red Crescent aid centre in the city’s Hamadaniya district, killing at least one worker and two civilians seeking assistance. Seven more volunteers were injured, three of whom were in a serious condition.

The Red Crescent and Red Cross condemned the attack.

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