Yesterday, the Syrian army took control of the entire city of Saraqib, which is the meeting point between two international routes linking several regions, in Idlib Governorate in the northwest of the country, according to official Syrian television, while Turkey threatened to respond to any targeting of its locations in Idlib.
Syrian state television broadcast live footage, which he said was from the "liberated city of Saraqib", and stated that "units of the army end combing the entire city of Saraqib, free of booby traps and mines."
The control of Saraqeb comes in the context of a large-scale attack launched by the Syrian army with Russian support in December in areas in and around Idlib against armed factions backed by Turkey. The attack focused on the southern and southeastern Idlib countryside and the neighboring southwestern countryside of Aleppo, where the international route "M5", which passes It connects the city of Aleppo with the capital, Damascus, and crosses several main cities from Hama and Homs to the southern border with Jordan.
The city of Saraqib in the southeastern countryside of Idlib is of strategic importance, as it constitutes the meeting point between the M5 road and the international road known as the M4, which connects Aleppo with Idlib, then Latakia in the west.
Since the beginning of the attack, the Syrian army has taken control of dozens of cities and towns in Idlib and Aleppo countryside, most notably the city of Maarat al-Numan, south of Idlib, and has continued its progress, and was able, yesterday, to control the entire M5 road in Idlib governorate, according to the Syrian Observatory. For Human Rights, who stated that there are still 30 kilometers of the international road outside the control of Damascus, passing through the southwestern countryside of Aleppo.
The observatory stated that the battles were concentrated yesterday in the vicinity of the road in the southwestern countryside of Aleppo, and Russian and Syrian warplanes also targeted several areas in its vicinity, and in the north of the city of Saraqib.
Before the Syrian army entered, the city of Saraqib was almost empty of residents, as a result of the massive wave of displacement that it witnessed as the escalation approached it.
The military escalation pushed 586,000 people, according to the latest UN count, to move from the escalation areas in Idlib and Aleppo, toward areas not covered by the bombing near the Turkish border.
On the other hand, Turkey threatened, yesterday, to respond to any targeting of its military sites in Idlib, a day after officials reported that the Syrian army had surrounded three points of the Turkish army.
Turkey has set up 12 observation points in Idlib, to repel any attack by the Syrian army, in accordance with an agreement with Russia.
Turkey sent, yesterday, yesterday, 350 vehicles accompanied by special forces and ammunition, in addition to some armored vehicles, to reinforce these sites, as reported by the official Turkish Anatolia Agency, and the Turkish Defense Ministry said on its account on Twitter that “the control points of Ankara in Idlib continue their duties And, in the event of a new attack, the response will be made appropriately, and in the strongest manner, based on the right to self-defense, ”according to the ministry’s description.
And the Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, gave a final deadline to Syria to remove the military forces from the Turkish observation points by the end of February, after eight Turkish soldiers were killed by the Syrian army forces fire, last Monday.
The spokesman for the Turkish President, Fakhruddin Alton, stressed that the development of the situation in Idlib has become unacceptable for Ankara, blaming the Syrian government for the crisis. Alton said during a media forum in Istanbul yesterday: “We can never tolerate what is happening in Idlib, and we will seek To account for our deaths.