(Zaman Al Wasl)- Turkish-backed forces launched a rocket attack on Russian outposts near Hmeimim air base in the coastal Latakia province, rebel source told Zaman al-Wasl Wednesday.
The Russian defense systems have intercepted the missiles near the city of Jableh, according to the source.
Moscow sees the multiple attacks on its main Russian base in Syria by Turkish-backed rebels as a provocation by Ankara tha may sparks more tentions.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened Wednesday to launch an operation in Idlib region by the end of the month if Bashar al-Assad's regime fails to withdraw behind Turkish military positions.
"An operation in Idlib is imminent," Erdogan told his party's lawmakers in parliament. "We are counting down, we are making our final warnings".
The UN envoy to Syria said Wednesday that the country was on the brink of worsening violence after an exchange of threats between key players Turkey and Russia.
Syrian aid workers have called for an urgent ceasefire and international help for nearly a million people fleeing the regime's onslaught in northwestern Idlib province -- the biggest wave of displaced civilians in the nine-year conflict.
"I cannot report any progress in ending the current violence in the northwest or in reconvening the political process," Geir Pedersen told the UN Security Council.
"Russian and Turkish delegations have met intensively in recent days ... but no understanding has yet emerged," he said.
"To the contrary, public statements from different quarters, Syrian and international, suggest an imminent danger of further escalation."
The regime army's offensive, backed by Russian air power, has triggered the biggest wave of displaced civilians in the nine-year conflict.
At a press conference in Istanbul, the Syrian NGO Alliance said existing camps are overcrowded and civilians forced to sleep in the open as more than 900,000 people flee the violence.
The regime offensive has killed more than 400 civilians since it began in December, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
"The violence in northwest Syria is indiscriminate. Health facilities, schools, residential areas, mosques and markets have been hit," the UN head of humanitarian affairs and emergency relief, Mark Lowcock, said earlier this week.
(Zaman Al Wasl with Agencies)
Zaman Al Wasl
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