Turkey has sent nearly 150 vehicles with commandos and ammunition to reinforce its observation posts in Idlib, Syria's last rebel-held region, Turkish state news agency Anadolu reported Friday.
A Turkish security source emphasised they were only to reinforce the 12 existing posts established under a 2018 deal with Russia to prevent an offensive by Syrian government forces.
Hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes in recent weeks as the Syrian regime, backed by Russian air strikes, presses an assault to retake Idlib.
Five Turkish soldiers and three civilians were killed earlier this week by regime shelling. Retaliatory fire by Turkey killed at least 13 Syrian troops.
Turkey says three of its outposts - all in the southeastern part of the region - have now been encircled by regime forces.
Turkey has set up four military posts to prevent regime forces from marching deeper into Idlib, Syria's Foreign Ministry said. It said Turkish troops have “flagrantly violated” Syria's border and deployed in several areas, including the villages of Binnish, Taftanaz and Maaret Musreen.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory of Human Rights monitor said Wednesday that Turkish troops at another position in Saraqeb had shelled regime forces to prevent it also being surrounded.
The security source refused to confirm those clashes but said Turkish forces in the area "are taking every kind of measure and will take every kind of measure" to ensure safety.
He said Turkey's priority was to stop the Syrian advance and reinstate the ceasefire, stressing that no Turkish soldiers would be evacuated.
Turkey and Russia have worked closely in recent years to resolve the situation in Idlib despite being on opposing sides of the conflict.
The Turkish source insisted that coordination with Russia remained strong and that joint patrols in northeastern Syria were only cancelled earlier this week due to "heavy weather conditions".
A delegation from Russia is expected Saturday in Turkey for further talks, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told reporters in Ankara.
The regime troops entered the strategic town of Saraqeb on Thursday, state-run media reported.
The town of Saraqeb, near the Turkish border, has been at the center of intense fighting for days. Opposition fighters pushed out government soldiers who entered it Wednesday, while Turkey sent in new reinforcements Thursday and threatened to use force to compel the Syrian forces to retreat by the end of the month.
The town sits at the intersection of two major highways, one linking the capital Damascus to the north and another connecting the country’s west and east.
State news agency SANA and state-run Al-Ikhbariya TV said regime army units entered the town before nightfall and were combing it for remaining fighters and explosives.
The regime army had earlier besieged the town and at least four Turkish military posts set up to protect Saraqeb against the advance were also besieged.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitoring group, said army units entered Saraqeb but had not yet taken control.
Video taken by The Associated Press showed rebel fighters lobbing shells at regime troops from around the town of Binnish, northwest of Saraqeb. Fighters stacked artillery shells and burned tires.
“Today, we are burning tires for the war that’s hitting the town of Binnish," said one unidentified fighter, pledging to defeat anyone who tried to advance on the town. "Let them come here and we will stomp on their head one after another," he added.
The government advance came after a rare confrontation between Turkey and Syria forces Monday that killed seven Turkish soldiers and a Turkish civilian member of the military, as well as 13 Syrian soldiers.
In Moscow, Russia's Foreign Ministry announced that Russian soldiers had been killed in a northern Syrian province alongside Turkish servicemen, without saying when the incident occurred or how many were killed. The ministry blamed “terrorists” for the deaths.
Russia is a main backer of Assad's forces, while Turkey supports insurgents fighting his government.
Assad troops have been advancing since December into the country's last rebel stronghold, which spans Idlib province and parts of nearby Aleppo. Turkish troops are deployed in some of those rebel-held areas to monitor an earlier cease-fire that has since collapsed.
The U.N. special envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, called for an urgent and sustained cease-fire, restrictions on support for terrorist groups, “serious exploration of a strengthened international presence with the consent of Syrian authorities,” and a serious effort to tackle the issue of foreign fighters.
“What we are now seeing creates the very real prospect of a bloody and protracted last stand on the Turkish border, with grave consequences for civilians — and the risk of dispersal of foreign terrorist fighters and ongoing insurgency afterward,” he warned at an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council called by Britain, France and the United States.
The Syrian offensive to retake the rebel held areas in the northwest has led to a humanitarian crisis, with more than 580,000 civilians fleeing their homes since the beginning of December, according to the U.N. Many of them have sought safety in areas close to the border with Turkey. At least 53 health facilities have suspended work in the area, according to the World Health Organization.
U.N. humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock said the “humanitarian catastrophe” has substantially escalated as shelling and airstrikes on dozens of communities force civilians “to move north and west into the ever-smaller enclave controlled by non-government groups.” That area is now “dramatically overcrowded” and “needs are growing exponentially,” with hundreds of thousands of civilians at risk, in addition to those who have fled since December, he said.
“Time is short. The front-line has now moved to within a few kilometers of Idlib city, the largest urban center in the northwest,” Lowcock said.
Idlib province is home to some 3 million people, many of them displaced from other parts of Syria in earlier bouts of violence.
The European Union called Thursday for an end to the fighting and urged warring factions to allow aid workers and supplies into the area.
"Bombings and other attacks on civilians in north-west Syria must stop," EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and the bloc's Crisis Management Commissioner Janez Lenarcic said in a statement.
They said the EU, a major aid donor, would continue to provide help but that “unimpeded, safe and secure access” was required.
The Observatory said Syrian warplanes on Thursday attacked a military air base in the village of Taftanaz, where Turkish troops deployed recently.
The Observatory said Syrian rebels later launched an attack under the cover of intense Turkish artillery shelling on the village of Nairab, which Syrian troops captured earlier in the week.
The insurgents carried out at least one suicide attack with an armored personnel carrier rigged with explosives, according to citizen journalist Taher al-Omar, who is embedded with the militants on the edge of the village.
Turkish leaders have repeatedly called on Russia to “rein in” Syrian government forces.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded Thursday that Russia was concerned about the concentration of insurgent groups in Idlib and their “continuing activity. ”
Peskov said the Kremlin doesn't rule out a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to discuss the situation in Syria.
Meanwhile, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said a delegation from Russia would arrive in Turkey soon for talks on the situation following the attack on Turkish soldiers. He said a follow-up meeting between Erdogan and Putin could also take place "if there is a need."
Zaman Al Wasl, Agencies
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