Military operations

The deadly attack on Turkish troops took place although the location of our forces was known by Russia, Turkey's defense minister said on Feb. 28.

"This attack occurred even though the locations of our troops had been coordinated with Russian officials in the field," Defense Minister Hulusi Akar told reporters in Hatay, a southern Turkish province bordering Syria.     

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.

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.

"The Syrian army is literally being rescued by aviation - both by their own and Russian aviation. The Syrian Air Force and Russian Air Force planes stop militants day in, day out," Middle East correspondent Evgeny Poddubny said.
According to him, Turkish forces and militants are actively using air defense systems. Russian and Syrian aviation use heat baits for fire protection.

A Russian delegation arrived in Turkey on Feb. 26 to resume talks aimed at easing tensions in Syria's northwestern Idlib region.

Shelling and airstrikes by Syrian regime forces killed at least three people on Feb. 26 in northwestern Syria, where dozens of villages, including major rebel strongholds in the last opposition-held area, have been captured over the past few days.

Turkish President Recep Erdogan said today that Turkey plans to banish Syrian government forces from Idlib in northwestern Syria by the end of February.

Speaking to lawmakers, he said he hoped the air force issue in northwestern Syria would be resolved soon.

Syrian regime forces recaptured the symbolic town of Kafranbel in Idlib province, one of the first cities to rebel against the Damascus regime, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Feb. 25 the Syrian regime will not be able to achieve a military victory and the recent offensive in Idlib only heightens the risks of conflict with Turkey.

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.