Turkish reprisals kill 20 Syria troops

BEIRUT: Turkish reprisals killed 20 Syrian soldiers in the battleground northwestern province of Idlib on Friday after a bombardment Ankara blamed on Damascus killed 33 Turkish soldiers, a monitor said.

The retaliatory drone and artillery strikes hit Syrian army positions in southern and eastern parts of the province which were recaptured by the government in a nearly three-month-old offensive against the rebel enclave, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

At least 16 regime fighters died in those strikes, while another four were killed by artillery fire on positions in neighbouring Aleppo province, the Observatory added.

Also on Friday in Idlib, four members of a single family, two of them children, were killed in air strikes, according to the Britain-based monitor, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria. There was no immediate confirmation from Damascus of the reported troop deaths or any comment on the flare-up with Ankara that prompted Nato to call an urgent meeting of its ruling council.