Photos of 33 Turkish soldiers killed on Thursday by a pro-Assad attack in northwest Syria


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UPDATE, 1345 GMT:

Reports are circulating of Lebanese Hezbollah fighters among the pro-Assad troops killed by Turkey on Friday.

The Iranian regime’s spokesman on English-language TV, Dr Seyed Mohammad Marandi of Tehran University, is in Idlib Province and implicitly confirms the reports.


UPDATE, 1305 GMT:

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan says he has asked Russia to step out of the battle in Idlib Province.

Erdoğan said of his Friday call with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, “I asked Putin for Russia to leave Turkish forces alone to fight the regime. We can’t seem to understand Russia’s intentions there.”

Addressing member of his ruling Justice and Development Party in Istanbul, the President declared, “If we do not clear our borders from terrorists now, we might have to fight bigger wars inside Turkey later on.”

He announced the intention for a 30-km (19-mile) “safe zone” along the entire Turkish-Syrian border.

The zone would add to the 450-km (250-mile) long area pursued by Turkey across two Kurdish cantons in northeast Syria, with Ankara carrying out a cross-border military campaign last October to establish its control of the territory.

Erdoğan declared that the Turkish military has now killed more than 2,100 Assad troops since confrontation escalated in January. He claimed that seven chemical sites; almost 300 military vehicles, including 94 tanks; airfields; air defense systems; and ammunition depots had been destroyed.


UPDATE, 1300 GMT:

Turkish officials have raised the death toll from Thursday’s pro-Assad strikes to 36 troops.


UPDATE, 1115 GMT:

Greek border police have used tear gas and stun grenades to prevent entry by Syrian refugees, after Turkey’s Erdoğan Government encouraged them to move into Europe.

“Throughout the night the security forces have prevented illegal border crossings,” Defense Minister Nikos Panagiotopoulos said, adding that several refugees were arrested.

Shipping and Island Policy Minister Ioannis Plakiotakis said checks have been escalated in the straits between Greek islands in the eastern Aegean Sea and the Turkish coast.

The Greek Government convened for a crisis meeting on Saturday morning.

Pressing Europe for support after Thursday’s killing of 33 Turkish soldiers by a pro-Assad strike, Ankara said on Friday that it will no longer prevent exit by the 3.6 Syrian refugees in Turkey.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Saturday, “What did we do yesterday? We opened the doors. We will not close those doors….Why? Because the European Union should keep its promises.”

Meanwhile, the more than 1 million civilians trapped in Syria’s Idlib Province between a Russian-regime offensive and a closed Turkish border are battling floods and freezing rain.


ORIGINAL ENTRY: Turkey has carried out devastating attacks on Assad regime positions in Idlib Province in northwest Syria, following Thursday’s killing of 33 Turkish soldiers by a Russian or regime airstrike.

Russia has not intervened to stop the retaliation so far, amid a day of talks which included a phone call between Presidents Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Vladimir Putin.

The Turkish military said that it struck more than 200 regime targets on Friday. It claimed that 56 troops were killed, and that Eight tanks, four armored combat vehicles, five howitzers, and two barreled rocket launchers were destroyed. Eleven of the regime fatalities were from drone strikes.

The statement said one Turkish soldier was killed — the 50th in two months from pro-Assad attacks — and two injured by artillery fire.

Thursday’s deadly attack on the Turkish position, reportedly a two-story building used as a command center, came a day after the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army reclaimed the town of Saraqeb from pro-Assad forces.

The town, seized on February 3 by the Russian-regime offensive, sits at the junction of the Damascus-to-Aleppo M5 and cross-Idlib M4 highways. The Assad regime quickly announced the control of the M5, but the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army cut the route last week.

Since late January, Erdoğan — facing more than 1 million displaced on a Turkish border closed since 2016, and with more than 3.6 Syrian refugees already in Turkey — has demanded that Assad regime forces withdraw from Idlib. He has also criticized Russia, with whom he reconciled in July 2016, by name for the first time.

The Blow to Assad’s Forces

Turkey’s attacks, and the advanced by the Turkish-backed rebels, raised the prospect of an end to the 10-month Russia-regime offensive that has killed almost 2,000 civilians, wounded thousands, and seized almost all of northern Hama Province and part of southern Idlib.

The military analysis site Oryx, reviewing video footage, reports that 16 tanks of pro-Assad forces have been destroyed and captured in the Turkish-rebel counter-offensive this month. There have also been significant losses of infantry fighting vehicles (4 destroyed, 10 captured); helicopters (5 downed); self-propelled artillery (17 destroyed), and multiple rocket launchers (9 destroyed).

Turkish soldiers promised a heavier blow in forthcoming days: “Our revenge has not yet begun.”

Reports indicated that several senior regime officers and an Iranian Revolutionary Guards commanders were among those killed on Friday.

Assad regime media said nothing about the devastating Turkish-rebel assault. “Army carries out intensive strikes against Turkish regime-backed terrorists”, outlets insisted. But regime insider Fares Shehabi, an Aleppo businessman prominent on social media, betrayed his concern.

Russia’s Response?

Putin has rebuffed Erdoğan’s calls for an end to the Russian-regime offensive, launched last April and shattering a “de-escalation zone” proclaimed by the two men in September 2018. At the start of this week, with the deadline for regime withdrawal looming, he rejected Erdoğan’s proposal of a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

But the Kremlin was cautious on Friday as Turkey carried out its retaliation. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov emphasized coordination between Moscow and Ankara with the general declaration, “The distinction of terrorists and moderate opposition forces needs to be our main goal.”

Lavrov said yesterday that Ankara shares the blame for Thursday’s killing of its soldiers, because it failed to notify Russia about the location of its troops — a claim that Ankara forcefully rejected.

The Foreign Minister also proclaimed that the Assad regime has the right to fight back when attacked by terrorists.

But he stood back from any Russian confrontation with Turkey if Ankara’s attacks continue, leaving the response up to Assad: “Moscow is in no position to stop Syrians”.

Russian and Turkish officials carried out a third day of talks in Ankara on Friday, and Erdoğan spoke by phone with Putin.

Both sides were conciliatory in their report of the call. Revising the Kremlin’s position on a face-to-face discussion, spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, “At the moment we are exploring the possibility of holding a meeting at the highest level on March 5 or 6.”