Flare-up in fighting in northwest Syria pulls in Russian, Turkish and Syrian forces

Monitoring Desk

AZAZ:  Turkish forces and Syrian rebels fought government troops in northwest Syria on Thursday and Russian warplanes struck back in an sharp escalation of an already intense battle over the last rebel bastions, Russian and Turkish officials said.

The Turkish defense ministry said more than 50 Syrian soldiers had been killed near Idlib city in retaliation for air strikes that had killed two Turkish soldiers and wounded five.

Earlier, talks between Moscow and Ankara, who back different sides in Syria’s nine-year-old war, had failed to reach a compromise to ease the fraught situation and head off a direct confrontation between them in Aleppo and Idlib provinces.

In Geneva, the United Nations refugee chief called for a halt to the fighting to allow hundreds of thousands of trapped and destitute civilians to move to places of safety.

Thursday’s action took place a day after Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan threatened to unleash a military operation against the Syrian government forces unless they pulled back from rebel-held areas.

The Russian defense ministry said Turkey had provided artillery support to the militants, wounding four Syrian soldiers.

Russian warplanes then attacked the militants who had burst through the government positions in two areas of Idlib province, allowing the Syrian army to repel them, the ministry said.

“So as not to allow the armed groups to make it deep into Syrian territory, Russian Su-25 aircraft carried out a strike… on the armed militant groups that burst through,” it said. The Turkish ministry said that Syrian planes had carried out the air strikes. A rebel source told Reuters that the Turkish army and rebels had mounted a joint operation to storm the town of Nairab, push the army away from the M4 highway, and help relieve the encirclement of five Turkish observation posts on the outskirts of the crossroads town of Saraqeb. Turkish forces had engaged Syrian troops on Saraqeb’s southern edge, he said. “The strategic goal is to reach Saraqeb city because it lies on both key highways,” Ibrahim al Idlibi, a former rebel official and activist said. “The Turkish troops are now combing Nairab town after the Syrian forces had pulled away”.

Syrian troops backed by Russian forces have been battling since December to eradicate the last rebel strongholds in northwest Syria in what could be one of the final chapters of a war that has killed an estimated 400,000 Syrians and left much of the country and its cities in ruins.

Turkish and Russian officials had failed to reach any compromise in talks in Ankara, although Turkish officials had sounded more optimistic on Thursday prior to the flare-up on the ground. Various options were being discussed, including the possibility of joint patrols in the area, one official said. Both Ankara and Moscow expected their presidents to “end the issue,” he added. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose family dynasty has ruled for nearly half a century, has showed no sign of letting up in the campaign to crush his foes once and for all.

Residents and relief staff said Russian warplanes on Thursday resumed attacks on the towns of Darat Izza and Atareb in the northern corner of Aleppo province, where Turkish troops have set up a line of defense. Meanwhile no end was in sight to the misery of the nearly one million people – most of them women and children – who have fled the fighting to seek sanctuary in the border area. The exodus has overwhelmed relief agencies but Turkey, which is struggling to cope with the 3.7 million Syrian refugees already camped inside its borders, says it can take no more.

In Azaz, about 30 km (20 miles) northwest of Aleppo city, Abu Abdallah had been stranded on the road for days. After his family fled the air strikes pounding Idlib, they moved from one village to another but have yet to find refuge. With him were his wife, four children and 20 other relatives.

“I don’t know where to take them,” the 49-year-old farmer said, sitting on his tractor. “God knows where we will go.” (Reuters)