Turkey said a regime airstrike on a Turkish military convoy in northwest Syria killed three civilians and wounded 12 Monday as Syrian troops advanced on rebels in a key town.
The airstrikes hit near the convoy that was approaching frontlines in Idlib province, two Turkey-backed rebel sources and an observatory said.
Ankara, which backs some of the rebel factions in the northwest, has forces stationed in Idlib under deals with Russia, Bashar Assad's most powerful ally.
Syrian state-run media said the dispatch of the convoy into Syria was an act of aggression and it had entered to help rebels fighting an army advance around Khan Sheikhoun, a rebel-held town was the scene of a chemical attack on April 4, 2017 that killed 89 people and prompted a U.S. missile strike
The advance on the town, in rebel hands since 2014, threatens to encircle insurgents in their only patch of territory in nearby Hama province and could put a Turkish observation post there at risk.
A series of truces brokered via Russian-Turkish talks have failed to end the fighting in Idlib, where Ankara has a dozen military positions.
The northwest is the last big stronghold of the opposition to Assad, whose military has been waging an offensive there since the end of April with Russian help.
The escalation has killed at least 860 civilians and uprooted 900,000, many stranded near the Turkish border, the United Nations says.
Turkey, which hosts some 3.6 million Syrian refugees and warns it cannot accept more, fears the onslaught in Idlib could cause a new influx.
Turkey's Defense Ministry said the military convoy was attacked en route to one of its observation posts in the northwest. It said the attack violated Ankara's agreements with Moscow, which had been informed in advance about the convoy.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based observatory, said the convoy was stuck on a highway after airstrikes prevented it from continuing southwards. It said a fighter accompanying the convoy was killed.
Colonel Mustafa Bakour of the Jaish al-Izza rebel faction said battles raged on the outskirts of the town. Fighters arrived to reinforce the frontline, he said, including some from the National Army, a Turkey-backed rebel force based further north near the border.
France called on Friday for an immediate end to the fighting and condemned airstrikes on camps for the displaced.
The town is located along a highway stretching from the capital Damascus to Aleppo city.
Opposition sources believe a primary goal of the regime offensive is to reopen the road.
An investigation by the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons blamed the sarin attack on the Syrian government. Damascus denies using such weapons.
Pro-regime forces were fighting to march into Khan Sheikhoun on Monday, as heavy airstrikes hit positions and towns in the south of Idlib, the Observatory said.
The regime army has closed in on the town from the east and west since a brief ceasefire collapsed earlier this month.
Turkey backs the rebels who have been in control of the region since 2012, while Russia backs Assad's regime, which has vowed to take back Idlib. There was no immediate official word from Turkey, which has 12 observation posts in and on the edge of Idlib province, about a convoy headed to Syria.
Syrian regime troops meanwhile reached the western outskirts of Khan Sheikhoun earlier in the day. The pro-regime Al-Watan online and the Observatory reported that Syrian troops have entered Khan Sheikhoun from the northwest.
The ministry said "this hostile behavior of the Turkish regime" wouldn't affect Syrian troops' push into Khan Sheikhoun.
Eight years of war in Syria have killed 560,000 people and driven half the pre-war population of 22 million from their homes, including more than 6 million as refugees to neighbouring countries.
Agencies, Zaman Al Wasl
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