Turkey bolsters military presence in Syria’s Idlib

Turkey’s military has sent its most significant batch of reinforcements to the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib in weeks, reports say, as Ankara seeks to prevent a Moscow-backed assault by forces of President Bashar Assad.

The reports come as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan prepares to meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Sochi in a new bid to warn the Kremlin against seeking to take rebel-held Idlib by force.

Under a deal agreed with Russia, Turkey has already set up 12 so-called observation points inside Idlib aimed at monitoring a de-escalation of violence.

The Hurriyet daily says the reinforcements include tanks and other military hardware accompanied by a convoy of some 50 military vehicles.

They were sent over the border Sunday to the Turkish observation point of Jisr al-Shugur in the southwest of Idlib province.

It has been the latest move in recent days by Turkey to shore up one of its observation points but Hurriyet said it was the most significant sent in the current spike in tensions.

Idlib is seen as the last stronghold of armed opposition to Assad after Syria’s over seven year civil war. But some 60 percent of its territory is controlled by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) jihadist group, regarded as a successor to the former branch of al-Qaeda in Syria.

— AFP