Some 40 troops have been guarding Ottoman tomb in Syria since 2012

Turkey has launched a military operation into Syria in order to evacuate troops guarding a tomb containing the remains of the 'grandfather' of the Ottoman Empire.

Nearly 600 troops and 100 tanks and were involved in the operation to extract soldiers guarding the crypt and to move it to a new location, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Sunday.

The tomb of Suleyman Shah, grandfather of Osman I, founder of the Ottoman Empire is sovereign Turkish territory, and some 40 troops have been guarding it since the start of the Syrian Civil War.

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Moving in: Turkish army vehicles drive through Kobane, during the operation to retrieve the garrison guarding the Suleyman Shah mausoleum in northern Syria

Breaking ground: Turkish soldiers put a wire fence around area after Turkish flag is raised in the Esme region of Aleppo where the Tomb of Suleyman Shah will be placed

Standing guard: Turkish soldiers protect at the new location as the Turkish Army launched a military operation into Syria to evacuate soldiers guarding Tomb of Suleyman Shah

The location of the tomb, in Karakozak village, northeast of Aleppo, is surrounded by ISIS fighters, putting the lives of the Turkish military guards at risk.

The overnight operation was split in two, with one group crossing into Syria to reach the tomb to repatriate the soldiers and extract the remains of Suleyman Shah

A second group took control of an area near the Turkish border where authorities plan to move the tomb, Turkish media reports.

One soldier was killed in an accident during the operation, Prime Minister Davutoglu said today.

'We had given the Turkish armed forces a directive to protect our spiritual values and the safety of our armed forces personnel,' Davutoglu said in televised remarks.

Returning: Turkish soldiers stand guard at the entrance of the memorial site of Suleyman Shah, grandfather of Osman I, founder of the Ottoman Empire, in Karakozak village, northeast of Aleppo, Syria

Incoming: Nearly 600 troops and 100 tanks and were involved in the operation to extract soldiers guarding the crypt and to move it to a new location,

The sun rises as Turkish troops stand guard over what is set to become a new Turkish enclave in Syria

Davutoglu said on his Twitter that the remains of Suleyman Shah would be moved to a different area of Syria which had been brought under Turkish military control.

SULEYMAN SHAH, THE GRANDFATHER OF AN EMPIRE Turkic leader Suleyman Shah was born circa 1178, and was the grandfather of Osman I, the founder of the Ottoman Empire. He is believed to have drowned in the Euphrates around 1236. His followers headed north into what is today Turkey, where they launched the Ottoman Empire. Following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in the wake of World War I, a treaty was signed between Turkey and France, then the colonial power in Syria. The 1921 Treaty of Ankara assigned an area of 8,000 sq.m. northeast of Aleppo, containing the tomb, to remain Turkish territory. The location of the tomb was flooded in 1973 due to the building of a new dam, and Turkey moved the mausoleum. Some historians question official accounts about the Shah's tomb, saying they might have been retrospectively concocted to enrich an imperial identity for Turks. Advertisement

The tomb, once some 22 miles from Turkey on the banks of the Euphrates River, was in Syria's embattled Aleppo province and is considered Turkish territory.

The overnight operation was launched 11 months after ISIS militants threatened to launch an attack on the tomb unless Turkey removed its troops within three days.

At the time, the Turkish government responded that any attack on the location of the tomb would be considered an attack on Turkish soil.

Prime Minister Davutoglu said today that Turkish troops later destroyed the tomb's complex, apparently to prevent it from being used by ISIS militants.

Authorities launched the operation around 9pm Saturday and ended it Sunday morning, he said.

Kobane was the focus of U.S. airstrikes as Kurdish forces battled militants of the Islamic State group, who hold about a third of Iraq and neighboring Syria in their self-declared caliphate.

Turkey stayed out of the battle at the time, which saw Kurds ultimately push out the extremists.