The Turkish military has launched an operation into Syria to evacuate Turkish soldiers guarding the tomb of Suleyman Shah, grandfather of the founder of the Ottoman Empire, Turkey's Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said.

The Turkish government said late last year that Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) fighters were advancing on the mausoleum, which is guarded by several dozen Turkish soldiers.

Turkish media reports said about 150 Turkish Special Forces and 25 intelligence officers participated in the operation late on Saturday.

Several tanks and armoured vehicles, supported by drones, rolled into Syria near the border town of Kobane and left Syria via the same route early on Sunday, Turkish media reported.

Davutoglu said on Twitter that the soldiers at the tomb returned to Turkey safely.

However, one Turkish soldier was reportedly killed in an accident during the evacuation, a military source told Reuters. The operation successfully evacuated the soldiers from the tomb, the source said.

The Suleyman Shah tomb, which was made Turkish territory under a treaty signed with France in 1921, when France ruled Syria, was reportedly moved to another location on Syrian soil, closer to the Turkish border

Turkey regards the enclave of the tomb as sovereign territory and had repeatedly vowed to defend it from any attack by the rebels.
(Al JAzeera)