Turkey carried out a major military offensive in Syria on Sunday (March 1st) against the Damascus regime, two planes of which were shot down and 19 soldiers killed.

Ankara said it destroyed more than 100 tanks, air defense systems and two fighter planes belonging to the Syrian army in retaliation for the deaths of 33 Turkish soldiers in a raid on Thursday by Damascus.

Since February 27, said Defense Minister Hulusi Akar, in an operation called "spring shield", Turkey has destroyed a drone, eight helicopters, 103 tanks, 72 howitzers, rocket launchers and six anti-aircraft defense systems. He added that 2,212 members of the Syrian forces had been "neutralized", a term generally used to mean killed, wounded or captured.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has also counted 74 dead in the ranks of the Syrian forces since the same date.

The Turkish Defense Ministry added that the army had shot down two Syrian fighter jets over Idlib province on Sunday. The Syrians shot down a Turkish drone, he also said. The Syrian pilots were able to eject by parachute and are doing well, writes the official Syrian news agency Sana, without further details.

The Syrian army also announced on Sunday the closure of all airspace over the northwest of the country to planes and drones, a region partly held by the rebellion with the support of Turkey. "Any aircraft that violates our airspace will be considered an enemy aircraft that must be shot down," the Sana news agency said, citing a military source.

An Erdogan - Poutine meeting

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov have agreed on a package of measures to create a climate conducive to finding a solution to the crisis, according to Ankara. A senior Turkish official said that Presidents Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Vladimir Putin are scheduled to meet in Moscow on Thursday to announce a new agreement on Idlib.

Concerned, the European Union announced an "extraordinary meeting" of its foreign ministers this week to discuss the worsening situation in Idleb.

With AFP and Reuters

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