ANKARA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd February, 2020) More than 70 Syrian army personnel have been "neutralized" as a result of Ankara's operations in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib after clashes in the de-escalation zone resulted in the deaths of six Turkish nationals, Turkey's Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said on Monday.
The Turkish Ministry of Defense announced earlier in the day that five Turkish military personnel and one Turkish civilian had beeb killed in shelling by Syrian government forces in Idlib. The ministry pledged to take retaliatory action.
"We are taking all possible measures in response to this attack. Our military has hit 54 targets in Idlib and neutralized 76 Syrian soldiers," Akar said, as quoted by Turkey's state-owned Anadolu news agency.
According to the defense minister, Russia was notified twice of Turkey's military operations in Idlib on Sunday. This was denied by the Russian Center for Syrian Reconciliation.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu, have discussed the escalation of tensions in Idlib, and the steps that the guarantor states can take to improve the situation, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Monday.
The area surrounding the city of Idlib is one of four nominated de-escalation zones created in Syria by representatives of Russia, Iran and Turkey during talks in Astana (now Nur-Sultan) in May 2017. Idlib is the only de-escalation zone not under the control of the Syrian government, after members of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham terrorist group (formerly known as Jabhat al-Nusra, banned in Russia) took control of a number of regions in the territory.
