Syria: Turkish soldiers killed by Syrian fire in the Idleb region

Text by: RFI Follow

Four Turkish soldiers were killed and nine injured this Monday, February 3, by artillery fire from the Syrian regime in the Idleb region in north-western Syria. This was announced on Monday morning by the Turkish Ministry of Defense, which specifies that the Turkish army has replied and "destroyed several targets". This escalation comes after several months of intense Syrian and Russian bombing against this province of Idleb, the last one which still escapes the control of President Bashar al-Assad.

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with our correspondent in Istanbul, Anne Andlauer

This is the scenario against which many have warned for months: that of a direct confrontation between the Turkish soldiers deployed in Idleb and the forces of the Bashar al-Assad regime, launched since April 2019 in a vast offensive to reconquer this province.

According to the Turkish Ministry of Defense, its soldiers were the target of artillery fire by Syrian regime forces even though their position had been communicated upstream. Without indicating where the confrontation took place, the press release specifies that these soldiers had been sent "in reinforcement". Since a Russian-Turkish agreement of September 2018, the Turkish army is indeed present in Idleb on 12 so-called "observation posts".

However, in the past six months, three of these posts have found themselves in areas taken over by the Syrian army or surrounded by it. Despite pressure from Moscow, Ankara refuses to evacuate these posts. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last week accused Russia of not respecting the Idleb agreements and threatened to launch an operation if the bombing continues.

► Read also : Erdogan accuses Russia of not respecting the agreements concluded

Ankara announces that it has responded to the shooting of its soldiers. On his Twitter account, President Erdogan's spokesperson Ibrahim Kalin goes further, saying that " the blood of our soldiers will not stay on the ground, those responsible will be held to account ."

Syrian forces targeted a Turkish army convoy overnight. Several Turkish soldiers were hit. But Turkey retaliated violently in the process and even strengthened its presence near the city of Saraqeb in the Idleb region. For the first time, Turkish commandos and special forces have been deployed.

Syrian opposition activist Fadi Al Maari analyzes the show of force of the different countries on the ground, joined by Sami Boukhelifa

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• Turkey
• Syria

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