A Turkish military convoy, included armored vehicles and tanks, has entered the northern Idlib province on Sunday to be the latest reinforcements sent in by Ankara amid a Syrian regime offensive this week brought the two countries' troops into a rare direct confrontation.
Turkey will use its right of self-defense in the strongest manner if Turkey faces a new attack in Syria, Turkey’s Defense Ministry said on Saturday, AA reported.
“In the event of a new attack, proper response will be given in the strongest manner based on the right of self-defense,” the ministry said in a statement.
The ministry also said Turkish observation posts in Idlib “continue their duties and are capable of protecting themselves with the weapons and equipment they possess.”
On Monday, an Assad regime attack in Idlib, northwestern Syria, martyred seven Turkish soldiers and one civilian contractor working with the Turkish military, and injured over a dozen people.
In retaliation, Turkey struck over 50 targets and killed 76 Syrian soldiers.
Meanwhile, Syrian regime forces captured new areas from rebels in their efforts to control a key highway.
The weekslong regime offensive has created a humanitarian crisis with about 600,000 people fleeing their homes in Syria's last rebel stronghold since the beginning of December, according to the United Nations.
Rebels control much of Idlib province and parts of the neighboring Aleppo region that is home to some 3 million people — many of them displaced from other parts of Syria.
The regime offensive appears aimed for now at securing a strategic highway in rebel-controlled territory, as opposed to an all-out campaign to retake the entire province, including the city of Idlib, the densely populated provincial capital.
"Our aim is to clear the highway and evict terrorists from it," a Syrian commander on the ground told state TV. He was referring to the M5 highway, which links the capital Damascus with the northern city of Aleppo.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said government forces still have 30 kilometers (18 miles) of the highway to clear before it comes under full control of the army for the first time since 2012.
Syrian state TV reported Saturday that regime forces captured four villages in Aleppo province near the highway. It added that Syrian troops and demining experts have cleared explosives and mines from the recently captured town of Saraqeb that sits on an intersection where the M5 meets with the M4 highway, linking Syria's coast with the country's east.
Syrian state media and the Observatory later reported that government forces captured the village of al-Eis and its strategic hill just east of the M5.
The new push came as Turkey, a main backer of the opposition, sent more reinforcements into Idlib, according to the Observatory and Idlib-based media activist Taher al-Omar who is embedded with militants.
The Observatory said a convoy consisting of 430 vehicles entered Syria since Friday night, raising the number of vehicles that entered Syria since last weekend to well over 1,000.
A rare clash on Feb. 3, between Turkish troops and Syrian soldiers left seven Turkish soldiers and a Turkish civilian dead as well as 13 Syrian troops.
In their turn, rebels had destroyed two tanks and heavy armored for the elite Fourth Mechanical Division and Iran-led militias waste of Aleppo, using TOW missiles, rebel commander told Zaman al-Wasl.
Pro-regime activists mourned more than 40 fighters loyal to Assad, including three General Brigadiers; said rebels killed them in the past 72 hours in northern Syria.
The violence has also raised tensions between Russia and Turkey, which have been working together to secure cease-fires and political talks, despite backing opposite sides of the conflict.
(Zaman Al Wasl, Agencies)
Zaman Al Wasl
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