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5 Turkish soldiers killed in Syria attack

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ANKARA: Syrian government forces killed five Turkish soldiers in northwest Syria on Monday, Turkey’s defence ministry said, after Turkey deployed thousands of troops there to stem a Syrian government offensive which has displaced half a million people.


The attack, on a newly established Turkish military base in Taftanaz in Idlib province, happened a week after eight Turkish military personnel were killed by Syrian army bombardment.


The two incidents marked some of the most serious direct confrontations between Turkish and Syrian troops in the nearly nine-year-long conflict in Syria, where Ankara backs rebels who once hoped to topple President Bashar al Assad.


Turkey said it retaliated for the latest strike.


“Targets identified in the region were immediately targeted intensively...and the necessary response was given. The targets were destroyed and the blood of our martyrs was not


left on the ground,” the defence ministry said.


A Turkey-backed Syrian rebel commander said the insurgents had also launched a military operation near the town of Saraqeb, south of


Taftanaz, with Turkish artillery support.


Turkey has sent large reinforcements to Idlib, where it already mans a dozen military observation posts under a deal with Russia and Iran aimed at reducing the fighting around Idlib, the last major enclave of opposition to Assad.


Several of the posts are now surrounded by Syrian government forces, but Turkey has poured 5,000 troops and convoys of military vehicles across the border, carrying tanks, armoured personnel carriers and radar equipment to bolster its presence.


“What is striking about the Turkish reinforcements... are their size and the nature of the weapons, all within a week, This is unprecedented,” said Turkey-based Syrian military defector general Ahmad Rahhal.


As the conflict escalated in Idlib, Turkish and Russian officials met in Ankara for talks. The two countries back opposing sides in Syria, where Moscow’s military intervention in 2015 helped swing the war decisively in Assad’s favour.


A Turkish diplomatic source said the delegations held two hours of discussions, their second meeting in three days, without giving details on the outcome of Monday’s session.


Russia and the Syrian government say they are fighting terrorists in Idlib, which is largely controlled by fighters.


Turkey, which hosts 3.6 million Syrian refugees, says the offensive has set off a fresh humanitarian crisis. It says it cannot absorb any more refugees and has demanded Damascus pull back in Idlib by the end of the month or face Turkish action.


Meanwhile, around half of Idlib province, along with slivers of neighbouring Aleppo and Latakia provinces, is dominated by jihadists of the Hayat Tahrir al Sham alliance and their rebel allies.


Some three million people, half of them already displaced at least once by violence elsewhere in Syria, live in the area.


Some 50,000 fighters are also in the shrinking pocket, many of them fighters but the majority allied rebels, according to the Observatory.


The heightened attacks on the region come as pro-regime forces close in on a section of a key transport artery that has long been in their sights.


The M5 connects Damascus to second city Aleppo and is economically vital to the government after nine-years of war. — Reuters


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