The Syrian opposition and the Turkish army begin a ground offensive near Idlib

Al-Jazeera correspondent said that the Syrian army, which is affiliated with the Syrian opposition, started a ground attack, southeast of Idlib, with the support of the Turkish army, under heavy artillery and missile cover.

The correspondent added that Turkish ground forces, backed by tanks, were participating in progress in several axes in Idlib countryside, and that the opposition had taken control of parts of the city of Neirab.

In the same context, Al-Jazeera correspondent in Syria stated that the Syrian armed opposition shot down a Russian reconnaissance plane near the town of Neirab, in Idlib countryside. He added that Turkish artillery had bombed locations of the Syrian regime forces in the Saraqib area.

This comes after an exchange of shelling between Turkish forces and the Syrian regime forces in Idlib, in conjunction with a Russian bombing that targeted an area near the location of a Turkish convoy in Jabal al-Arbaeen, in the countryside of the city.

On the other hand, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that preparations are under way to hold a Russian-Turkish-Iranian summit on Syria, noting that no agreement has been reached on when it will be held yet.

Peskov added that Russia had negotiated with the Iranian side about holding this meeting, and that Moscow had expressed its agreement on specific dates, noting that the dates are now being coordinated between the heads of the three countries.

For his part, a Turkish official said that a meeting in Tehran between Turkey, Russia and Iran will be held next month to discuss the situation in Idlib. He added that Ankara is discussing with Moscow the conduct of joint patrols in Idlib, as one of the options to ensure security in the region.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşo أوlu said it was difficult to proceed with the Sochi and Astana agreements, as the Syrian regime's attacks on Idlib continued. He added that the Sochi and Astana agreements did not stop, but they were damaged.

Turkey and Russia, which support warring parties in the nine-year-old war, have failed to reach an agreement after two rounds of talks in the past two weeks.

An attack by the Syrian regime forces to eradicate the last opposition stronghold in the northwest of the country has caused some of the most serious confrontations so far between Ankara, a member of NATO, and Damascus, and prompted Turkey to send thousands of its soldiers and frames of heavy weapons to the border area.

Turkey has received about 3.7 million Syrian refugees since the beginning of the war and says it cannot absorb more across its closed borders. The United Nations says that more than 900,000 people, most of them women and children, have fled Idlib since early December.

Turkey, which supports opposition fighters trying to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, has threatened to use military force to defeat the Syrian forces advancing in Idlib unless
These forces will withdraw by the end of this month.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday that carrying out a Turkish operation in Idlib is only a "matter of time."

Turkey said that the Syrian regime forces surrounded some of its monitoring sites, but it would not evacuate these sites or change their locations. A Turkish presidential spokesman said
Ibrahim said on Tuesday that Turkey rejected the alternative maps that Russia had presented during the talks.