BALADI NEWS
Turkey, faced with a new wave of Syrian migrants and more than 30 dead soldiers in Idlib, will no longer stop Syrian refugees from reaching Europe, a senior Turkish official said late on Thursday as President Tayyip Erdogan chaired an emergency meeting.
An air strike by Assad regime forces in Syria’s northwest Idlib region killed at least 37 Turkish soldiers and wounded several others, the local governor in the southeastern province of Hatay said separately early on Friday.
In anticipation of the imminent arrival of refugees from Idlib, Turkish police, coast guard and border security officials have been ordered to stand down on refugees’ land and sea crossings, the Turkish official told Reuters.
Bashar al-Assad’s forces, supported by relentless Russian air strikes, have pushed hard in recent months to retake the last large rebel-held region in northwest Syria after nine years of war that has displaced millions and killed hundreds of thousands.
NATO-member Turkey has sent thousands of troops and heavy military hardware into Idlib province to back its allied rebels against the offensive.
Erdogan, who has warned Turkey would push back the Assad regime forces unless they pulled back, held an emergency meeting late on Thursday with his staff due to the attack, two Turkish officials said.
Source: Reuters.