(Zaman Al Wasl)- At least 20 Syrian regime soldiers were killed on Friday in a missile attack by the Turkey-backed forces in northern Idlib province, rebel commander told Zaman al-Wasl.
Captain Naji Mustafa, spokesman for the National Liberation Front, said the key National Army unit had destroyed a regime outpost and military task command in the town of Maarret al-Numan south of Idlib city. The armed faction also hit the Syrian regime forces with heavy artillery fire, he added.
On Thursday, the National Army shelled regime forces and entered the village of Nairab, near the strategic town of Saraqeb, both of which were held by regime troops.
The Turkish Defense Ministry tweeted that as many as 50 Syrian regime soldiers were killed and that five tanks, two armored personnel carriers and other equipment were destroyed.
The Russian military said the militants' actions "were supported by Turkish artillery fire," which allowed them to break through the regime army's defenses. Four Syrian soldiers were wounded in the Turkish shelling, it said.
At the Syrian military’s request, Russian Su-24 bombers then struck the militants to prevent them from advancing and allowing regime forces to "successfully repel all attacks," the military added.
It was not immediately clear whether it was the Russian airstrikes that killed the two Turkish soldiers and injured five others.
At least 15 Turkish soldiers have been killed in Syria this month amid a crushing offensive by Bashar Assad's forces aimed at recapturing remaining opposition-held areas in the region.
The multiple front offensive in Idlib has triggered the biggest single wave of fleeing civilians in Syria's nine-year war, displacing nearly 1 million people who have rushed toward the Turkish border and are sheltering in tents or sleeping rough in harsh winter weather.
The Syrian regime offensive has also risked completely shattering a fragile cooperation between Ankara and Moscow, which back opposing sides of the Syria war. Ankara has sent thousands of soldiers to northwestern Syria to try to stem the Syrian regime advance on the province near the Turkish border, leading to the repeated flare-ups.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has told reporters that Turkey will not withdraw from Idlib and that he will decide his Idlib stance after speaking to Russian president, Vladimir Putin later today. He also called for "concrete action" to prevent a crisis in Syria's last rebel stronghold in a phone call with his French and German counterparts, his office said Friday.
A humanitarian crisis has unfolded in the northwestern province of Idlib as the Syrian regime, backed by Russian air strikes, presses on with an offensive that has forced nearly one million civilians to flee their homes.
Meanwhile the United Nations reiterated its appeal Friday for a halt to hostilities in northwest Syria, saying it feared that the violence "may end in a bloodbath".
The assault has allowed the regime to reclaim swathes of territory in the south of Idlib province and in neighbouring Aleppo province.
The fighting has also caused an unprecedented wave of displacement, with around 900,000 people - more than half of them children - forced to flee their homes and shelters since December, according to UN figures.
Zaman Al Wasl
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