"Our hero comrade fell martyr and five were wounded during the clashes with the terrorists," the ministry said in a statement, referring to the People's Protection Units (YPG).

It did not say where the exchange happened.

The Britain-based monitoring group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it was a rocket attack on a Turkish position in northern Aleppo.

Turkey says the YPG is a Syrian offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has waged an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984 and is branded as a terrorist group by Ankara.

While Turkey's Western allies have also designated the PKK a terrorist organisation, they support the YPG as a crucial force in the fight against the Islamic State group.