Turkey military convoy enters Idlib to protect terrorists, impede Syrian forces advance: Army

Syria’s official news agency SANA cited a statement released by the General Command of the Army and Armed Forces that a Turkish military convoy, including a number of armored vehicles, passed from Oglinar area into Syria and was deployed to the line between the towns of Binnish, Ma’aret Masrin and Taftanaz early on Thursday.

The intrusion, the statement added, took place in “blatant synchronicity” with the Israeli air aggression.

According to an earlier report by SANA, Syrian air defense forces intercepted several missiles launched from the occupied Golan Heights and southern Lebanon targeting al-Kiswa area, Marj al-Sultan, Baghdad Bridge and South of Izraa around the capital, Damascus, early on Thursday.

Syria’s air defense system intercepts Israeli missiles over DamascusSyrian air defense forces have intercepted several missiles launched from “the Palestinian occupied territories,” according to Syrian state media.

“The Army and Armed Forces General Command continues its national tasks in defending the security of the homeland and the citizens, and it affirms at the same time the readiness of the Syrian Arab Army and its determination to confront the aggression regardless of its different names and forms,” the statement read.

The “simultaneous Israeli and Turkish attempts and whoever supports armed Takfiri terrorism will not succeed in preventing our courageous soldiers from pursuing their field tasks till clearing all the Syrian territories from the armed terrorist organizations,” the statement said.

Over the past four years, the Turkish military has staged at least two unauthorized invasions into northern Syria to push back against Kurdish militants, which Ankara accuses of harboring subversive intentions against the Turkish administration.

Syria has denounced the offensives, saying it would respond in kind if the need arises.

Damascus has even been approached by the Kurdish-majority population of the assaulted areas for military support in the face of the Turkish military.

Citing witnesses and a war monitor, Reuters reported that Syrian government forces were hit by Turkish artillery barrages as they tried to seize the town of Saraqeb in northwestern Idlib province in a new push to recapture the last militant-held stronghold.

The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said Wednesday that Syrian forces backed by air strikes had encircled and entered Saraqeb, 15 kilometers (9 miles) east of Idlib city.

Syrian army liberates two more towns in southeastern IdlibSyrian army liberates two more towns in the southeastern countryside of the country

Militants “managed to push back government forces from most of Saraqeb in an attack from the northern part of the town that coincided with Turkish shelling against advancing government forces,” the Observatory claimed.

Witnesses said Syrian government forces came under shelling from Turkish observation posts in the area.

The renewed clashes are taking place despite a January 12 ceasefire agreement between Turkey and Russia, which back opposing sides of the conflict.

On Wednesday, Turkish President President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Syrian government forces in Idlib must pull back behind a line of Turkish observation posts by the end of this month, warning that if they did not do so, Ankara would drive them back.

Over the past four years, the Turkish military has staged at least two unauthorized invasions into northern Syria to push back against Kurdish militants, which Ankara accuses of harboring subversive intentions against the Turkish administration.

Syria has denounced the offensives, saying it would respond in kind if the need arises.

Damascus has even been approached by the Kurdish-majority population of the assaulted areas for military support in the face of the Turkish military.

In another development, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that Russian and Turkish “military specialists” were killed by militants who staged more than 1,000 attacks in the last two weeks of January in the de-escalation zone in Idlib province.

“There has recently been a dangerous increase in tension and a surge of violence in Idlib,” the ministry said in a statement on its website.

Russia continues to closely coordinate with Turkey and Iran on the ground in Syria, it added.

Iran has been providing military advisory assistance to the Syrian government against foreign-backed militants.