Turkish-backed Syrian rebels attacked regime-held positions northeast of Aleppo on Saturday, rebel sources and a war monitor said, opening a new front against Syrian army forces that have made significant advances in nearby Idlib over the last week.
The attack was focused on territory near the city of al-Bab, which has been controlled by Turkey and its Syrian opposition allies since 2017. Syrian state media made no mention of a new attack. Turkish forces were not taking part, rebel sources said.
Rebel sources said their fighters had taken three villages so far. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the war, described it as a fierce attack “carried out by factions loyal to Ankara”.
Syrian regime forces, backed by Russian air power, have made rapid advances in Idlib this week, capturing the town of Maarat al-Numan which is located about 100 km (60 miles) southwest of al-Bab.
Idlib and the area north of Aleppo form part of the last major rebel-held territory in Syria, where President Bashar al-Assad has taken back most of the ground once held by his enemies with Russian and Iranian support.
The regime's latest Idlib advance has triggered a fresh wave of civilian displacement, with hundreds of thousands moving towards the Turkish border. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday Turkey may launch a military operation in Idlib unless the fighting there is halted.
U.S. special envoy for Syria James Jeffrey said on Thursday the Idlib fighting raised the specter of an international crisis.
President Tayyip Erdogan said Friday that Turkey may launch a military operation into Idlib province if the situation is not resolved immediately, as regime attacks risked a new wave of refugees.
The recent campaign has also raised tensions between Ankara and Moscow, which back opposing sides in the conflict. Turkey fears a fresh wave of migrants from Idlib and has 12 observation posts in the region, part of a 2018 de-escalation deal that Erdogan says Russia is now violating.
Speaking in Ankara, Erdogan repeated Turkey could not handle a fresh influx of migrants. He said Ankara will not allow new threats near its borders, even if it meant resorting to military power, as it did in its three previous cross-border operations in northern Syria.
"We will do what is necessary when someone is threatening our soil. We will have no choice but to resort to the same path again if the situation in Idlib is not returned to normal quickly," Erdogan said.
He also appeared to hold out the option of another operation in northeastern Syria, where in October Ankara targeted the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia that it calls a terrorist group.
"We will not refrain from doing what is necessary, including using military force," he said, adding Turkey wants stability and security in Syria.
Later on Friday, the Kremlin said Russia was fully compliant with its obligations in Idlib, but that it was deeply concerned about what it said were aggressive militant attacks on Syrian government forces and Russia's Hmeimim air base.
Turkey, which has backed some rebels fighting to oust Assad, currently hosts more than 3.6 million Syrian refugees. Erdogan has repeatedly called for Assad to step down, even while Iran, Russia and Turkey have said they seek a political solution to the conflict.
"We will not allow the regime to put our country under the constant threat of migrants by tormenting, attacking, spilling the blood of... its people," Erdogan said.
Turkey, which already hosts some 3.5 million Syrian refugees, is terrified of a new influx fleeing an assault on Idlib. Experts believe, however, that Turkey doesn’t have many options to prevent such a crisis, other than trying to reach a temporary settlement in which Ankara would tolerate the loss of territory in Idlib below the strategic M4 and M5 highways, according to Middle East Eye.
Nearly half a million people have been killed and millions displaced in Syria's long-running civil war, which erupted in 2011 in the form of anti-government protests amid Arab Spring uprisings and eventually turned into an armed insurgency.
(Zaman Al Wasl with Agencies)
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