BALADI NEWS
Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar and his Russian counterpart discussed ways to reduce tension in Syria’s Idlib province, the Turkish Defence Ministry said on Tuesday, after the biggest military escalation in northwest Syria in nearly a year.
The offensive by the Syrian army and its allies, backed by Russia, has uprooted more than 150,000 people, the United Nations says, while rescue workers and civil defence officials say more than 120 civilians have been killed.
Russia has backed the regime of Bashar al-Assad, while Turkey has backed some rebels in Syria’s eight-year civil war, but they have recently worked together to try to contain fighting in the country’s northwest.
That effort has been strained by the surge in violence in Syria’s last major insurgent stronghold in recent weeks.
On Monday, rebels said they mounted a counterattack against regime forces. A senior rebel commander said on Tuesday the offensive showed an array of rebel forces - from Turkey-backed rebels to jihadists - were still able to prevent the army from making major advances despite heavy air strikes.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan told his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, on Monday that the Syrian regime was targeting Turkish-Russian cooperation in Idlib by violating the September ceasefire.
Source: Reuters.