At least 33 Turkish troops were killed in Syria’s Idlib Province after an airstrike blamed on Damascus, prompting condemnation from Washington and a UN warning on the risk of escalation.
Dozens more troops were injured and taken to Turkey for treatment, said Rahmi Dogan, governor of Turkey’s Hatay Province.
The heavy losses in northwestern Idlib came after weeks of growing tensions between rebel supporter Ankara and Damascus ally Moscow.
“Without urgent action, the risk of even greater escalation grows by the hour,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement that reiterated UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ call for an immediate ceasefire.
A US Department of State spokesperson said that Washington stands by its NATO ally Turkey and continues to call “for an immediate end to this despicable offensive by the [Syrian President Bashar] al-Assad regime, Russia and Iranian-backed forces.”
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg urged de-escalation by all parties of “this dangerous situation,” his spokesman said.
In a telephone call with Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlut Cavusoglu, Stoltenberg “condemned the continued indiscriminate airstrikes by the Syrian regime and its backer Russia in Idlib Province,” the spokesman said.
Turkey has urged the Syrian regime to withdraw from its observation posts in Idlib, while Moscow has accused Ankara of aiding “terrorists” in Syria.
Under a 2018 deal with Russia meant to bring calm to the province, Turkey has 12 observation posts in the region — but several have come under fire from al-Assad’s forces.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hastily convened an emergency meeting in Ankara after the attack.
Erdogan’s top press aide, Fahrettin Altun, said the Turkish military retaliated against all known positions of the regime after the airstrike.
The latest attack means 53 Turkish security personnel have been killed in the province this month.
There was a flurry of diplomatic activity as Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin spoke with US National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien, state news agency Anadolu reported without giving details.
Militants and Turkish-backed rebels on Thursday re-entered Saraqeb, a key Idlib crossroads town they had lost earlier this month, reversing one of the main gains of the government’s devastating offensive.
However, the counteroffensive could be short-lived as Russian-backed Syrian troops continued to chip away at other parts of the rebel bastion, capturing 20 localities.
Seven civilians, including three children, were killed in the regime and Russian bombardment of Idlib, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, adding to more than 400 such deaths since December last year.
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