Turkish soldiers guarding the tomb of Suleyman Shah in Syria have been successfully evacuated to Turkey in a military operation overnight, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Sunday.
Davutoglu said the remains of Suleyman Shah, grandfather of the founder of the Ottoman Empire, would be moved to a different area of Syria which has been brought under Turkish military control.
The military said in a statement that there had been no clashes during the operation but that one soldier had been killed in an accident.
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.
At a news conference in Ankara on Saturday, Davutoglu said the incursion into Syria involved 100 military vehicles including 39 tanks.
The 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, witnesses told Al Jazeera.
Davutoglu said on Twitter that the 40 soldiers stationed at the tomb returned to Turkey safely.
However, one Turkish soldier was killed in an accident during the evacuation, the military said.
The Suleyman Shah tomb, which was made Turkish territory under a treaty signed with France in 1921, when France ruled Syria, was moved to another location on Syrian soil, closer to the Turkish border, Davutoglu said.
Turkey regards the enclave of the tomb as sovereign territory and had repeatedly vowed to defend it from any attack by the rebels.