Two Turkish soldiers killed in Syria’s Idlib

ANKARA: Two Turkish soldiers were killed in the rebel-held northwestern Syrian province of Idlib, officials said Thursday, the country´s first reported casualties since a ceasefire began earlier this month.

A ceasefire was agreed in Idlib — the last Syrian outpost out of the control of President Bashar al-Assad´s forces — between rebel-backer Turkey and regime-ally Russia which entered into force on March 6. It has largely held. But Turkey´s ruling party deputy chairman, Mahir Unal, said on Twitter Thursday that a soldier was killed in a “heinous attack” in the Idlib town of Muhambal. Unal did not say who was responsible for the attack. The governor´s office of the central Turkish province of Sivas tweeted that a 25-year-old soldier from the area was also killed in the Syrian region. The governorate provided no details on how the soldier was killed or exactly where.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Tuesday that four regime fighters and a rebel were killed in clashes in southern Idlib. Ankara hopes the ceasefire will stem a months-long government assault on the jihadist-dominated region, which is home to some three million people.. Nearly a million in Idlib were forced to flee towards the Turkish border during a regime-led offensive underway since December, which killed around 500 civilians.

Earlier, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed the migrant crisis and the situation in Syria´s rebel enclave of Idlib, with the leaders of France, Germany and Britain.The four-party video conference that involved French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson came after Turkey decided last month to re-open its border for refugees trying to reach Europe.

The move sparked tensions with Brussels, and with neighbouring Greece, when thousands of migrants massed on the Turkish-Greek border. “Humanitarian assistance for Idlib, and the refugee issue” were on the agenda according to the Turkish presidency, along with other issues such as fighting in Libya.