Idlib: Two Turkish soldiers killed, Ankara and Moscow negotiations in a "dead end"

The Turkish Ministry of Defense stated that two Turkish soldiers were killed and five others were wounded in air strikes carried out by the Syrian regime forces near Idlib, stressing that the attack was responded to and more than fifty Syrian soldiers were killed.

The ministry said - in a statement - that its response also destroyed five tanks and two armored vehicles to transport the soldiers, two armored vehicles and a howitzer.

These developments come just hours after the National Army of the Syrian opposition, with the support of the Turkish army, launched a ground attack in southeast Idlib from several axes under heavy artillery and missile cover, and only a day after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that a Turkish operation in Idlib was only " A matter of time".

The attack enabled the opposition forces, according to what Al-Jazeera correspondent reported, to control parts of the city of Neirab.

The reporter also reported that the Syrian armed opposition had shot down a Russian reconnaissance plane near the city, and that Turkish artillery had bombed locations of the Syrian regime forces in the Saraqib area.

The Russian Information Agency quoted the Ministry of Defense as saying that those it described as "pro-Turkish militants" penetrated the defenses of the Syrian government in two areas of Idlib governorate.

The agency confirmed that the Russian Air Force carried out strikes targeting the infiltrators, and the Russian Ministry of Defense also called on Ankara to stop its support for the national army of the Syrian opposition.

She said in a statement that the Russian army calls on "the Turkish side to stop supporting and arming terrorist groups", condemning the strikes originating from Turkish sites that resulted in the injury of four Syrian soldiers.

Impasse
On the other hand, a senior Turkish source said to the island that the negotiations between the Russian and Turkish sides on Idlib had reached a dead end.

Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşo أوlu also said that 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.

The Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, had confirmed earlier 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.

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