Fri 28 February 2020:
A Syrian regime air strike killed 33 Turkish soldiers in country’s Idlib province, a Turkish official said.
Soldiers who were severely wounded in the attack by Syrian regime, were being treated at hospitals in Turkey, said Hatay Governor Rahmi Dogan.
The governor also said 32 wounded are in the hospitals in the country’s southern province Hatay.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called an emergency security meeting in Ankara following the Syrian regime air strike on Turkish soldiers.
Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu also spoke to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg by telephone following the attack.
Meanwhile, the Turkish Armed Forces have destroyed a total of 1,709 regime elements in operations in Idlib since February 10, 2020.
Turkey’s Communication Director Fahrettin Altun reminded the deadline for Syrian regime to take their forces behind Turkish observation posts in Idlib:
“Time is running out! The murderous regime has attacked civilians and our soldiers on the ground. We have & will continue to respond. If these attacks continue, we are moving forward with our plans to stop the regime from killing and displacing more people,” Altun said his Twitter account.
On a press release following emergency security meeting in Ankara, Altun said Turkish air and land forces conducted suppressive fire against all known Syrian regime targets.
“Today, we cannot and will not spectate as what happened in Rwanda, Bosnia and Herzegovina in the past is repeated in Idlib,” Altun said.
Turkey’s presidential advisor and spokesman Ibrahim Kalin got his US National Security Advisor Robert C. O’Brien on the line to talk about Syrian regime attacks.
US State Department said in a statement that are very concerned about air strikes on Turkish soldiers in Syria
“We stand by our NATO ally Turkey,” State Department statement read.
On the other side, US Senator Lindsey Graham, who is a close to Trump administration, calls for the establishment of a no-fly zone over Syria’s Idlib and calls on President Donald Trump to help stop the killing of civilians.
US Senator Marco Rubio backed Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday amid an ongoing offensive in Syria’s Idlib province. The “prospects of a direct military confrontation between Turkey and Russia in Syria are very high & increasing by the hour,” Rubio said on his Twitter account.
The Turkish army also destroyed a total of 55 tanks, three helicopters, 18 armoured vehicles, 29 howitzers, 21 military vehicles, four Docka anti-aircraft guns, six ammunition depots, and seven mortars in the operations, said the sources on condition of anonymity.
Turkey to open European borders for refugees
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, a Turkish official told Reuters.
Turkey’s governing AK Party spokesman Omer Celik in a CNN Turk interview said that the country’s refugee policy hasn’t changed, but it will no longer able to hold refugees.
Turkish parties extend condolences for martyred troops
Turkish political parties on Friday extended condolences to the nation over the loss of lives of Turkish soldiers in an airstrike by the Bashar al Assad regime in Idlib, northwestern Syria.
“I wish Allah’s mercy to martyred soldiers and extend my condolences to their families and our nation. Allah bless our soldiers,” Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), said on Twitter.
Meral Aksener, the head of the opposition IYI (Good) Party, also turned to Twitter to extend her condolences.
“I wish Allah’s mercy to our heroes who became martyrs for the motherland,” Aksener said.
According to a statement by the opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), the party’s leader Devlet Bahceli and other senior members follow the latest developments in Idlib from the party’s headquarters.
In September 2018, Turkey and Russia agreed to turn Idlib into a de-confliction zone in which acts of aggression are expressly prohibited.
But more than 1,300 civilians have been killed in attacks by the regime and Russian forces in the de-escalation zone since then as the ceasefire continues to be violated.
The de-escalation zone is currently home to 4 million civilians, including hundreds of thousands displaced in recent years by regime forces throughout the war-torn country.
Over a million Syrians have moved near the Turkish border due to intense attacks.
Since the eruption of the bloody civil war in Syria in 2011, Turkey has taken in some 3.7 million Syrians who fled their country, making it the world’s top refugee-hosting country.
