BALADI NEWS
Turkey shot down a fighter jet belonging to the regime forces in Idlib Tuesday, marking the third such incident in as many days, as steady clashes between the two national armies continued over a Russia-backed Syrian regime offensive near the Turkish border.
The Assad regime military said Turkish forces targeted a warplane with a missile as it was carrying out operations against “terrorist groups” in the rebel-held Idlib region, causing it to crash northwest of the town of Maaret al-Numan. The fate of the crew was not clear.
On the other side, Two more Turkish soldiers have been killed and six wounded in an attack by Syrian government forces in northwest Syria’s Idlib region, the Turkish Defence Ministry said on Wednesday.
Immediately after the regime forces opened fire, Turkish forces retaliated and continued to strike targets, the ministry statement said. The incident brought to 59 the death toll, including one on Tuesday, of Turkish forces in their Idlib operation which began last month.
Russian officials have said they hold Turkey responsible for the collapse of a cease-fire agreement reached in Sochi, Russia in 2018, saying Ankara had not held up its end to rein in militants who continued attacking Syrian and Russian targets.