Idlib Governorate clashes

A Turkish soldier was killed in the northwestern Syrian region of Idlib on May 27 after an explosion along the M4 highway, Turkey's Defense Ministry said in a statement.

Turkey's Defense Ministry said on March 19 that two of its soldiers were killed and another was injured in Syria's northwestern province of Idlib, in a rocket attack by "some radical groups".

In a written statement, the ministry said the radical groups in the de-escalation zone attacked Turkish soldiers, adding that its forces had opened fire on targets in the area.

An official said this in anticipation of a massive movement of refugees from the Syrian province of Idlib, where there are one million displaced people.

At least 33 Turkish soldiers have been killed and tens of others injured in an airstrike by forces of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Idlib, northwestern Syria, a Turkish official said on Feb. 28.

Turkey has decided to no longer stop Syrian refugees from reaching Europe by land and sea, a senior Turkish official told Reuters on Thursday, in anticipation of the imminent arrival of refugees from Syria's Idlib where nearly a million have been displaced.

Five civilians died on Feb. 24 in Russian air strikes backing Syrian regime forces as they chip away at the country's last major rebel bastion, a war monitor said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the deadly raids hit the area of Jabal al-Zawiya in the south of Idlib province.

A Syrian opposition group reported on Feb. 14 that they downed a Syrian regime helicopter in a "de-escalation zone" in northwest Syria.

The helicopter was hit directly while flying over the western Aleppo province, in a rural area of Aleppo that falls within the de-escalation zone of the neighboring province of Idlib.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday the Syrian government will pay a "very heavy price" for attacking Turkish troops in northwest Syria's Idlib region, where 13 soldiers have been killed in just over a week, prompting a retaliation.

Turkey said it retaliated on Feb. 10 after intense shelling by Syrian forces killed five soldiers and wounded five others in Syria's northern Idlib province, a marked escalation a week after a similarly deadly clash between the two sides.

Syrian government troops entered a strategic town in the country's last rebel stronghold on Feb. 6 after fierce clashes with opposition fighters.