5 Turkish Soldiers Killed in Idlib, Confrontations Loom with Syrian Army

Amid tense situation already lasting for days, the Turkish Defense Ministry said that five of its soldiers were killed in an attack on a observation post in Taftanaz in Idlib Governorate, northwestern Syria, and that it was preparing to respond.

The site is among the new deployment points for the Turkish army amid its bids to strengthening its forces in Idlib in response to the field progress registered by the Syrian army.

Turkey has strengthened its troop presence significantly on the Syrian border after the killing of 7 of its soldiers and one civilian in Idlib on February 3, as 1,450 military vehicles have, so far, entered there.

The number of Turkish soldiers who were deployed in Idlib and Aleppo during the same period reached about 6 thousand soldiers.

While almost 8 Turkish observation points are under the Syrian siege in both Idlib and Aleppo, according to field sources, the Turkish forces deployed to new points during the past days, most notably the Taftanaz military airport and the "Tala'i Al-Baath" camp in Mastumah and the military housing area in the vicinity of the city Idlib.

According to "Bloomberg" agency, Ankara continued to send hundreds of tanks and armored personnel carriers, as well as special forces, to the Syrian province of Idlib, amid expectations of confrontations with the Syrian forces.

Earlier today, the Turkish Minister of Defense, Khulusi Akar, announced that his country has put forward alternative plans for Idlib province, in case the Syrian army continues to advance, which he described as "violating the agreement with Russia on a ceasefire."

The Turkish minister avoided revealing more details about the alternative plans. The Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has threatened in the past week to use force unless the advanced Syrian forces retreat before the end of February.

This comes while the Syrian army continued its field successes in the north against the strongholds of the armed opposition supported by Turkey, and it has only two kilometers left to restore the entire international highway Aleppo - Damascus (M5).

The restoration of this strategic road has become the most prominent goal for Damascus today, and it has gradually controlled the largest part of it during the army's military operations in the recent days. The forces seized dozens of villages and towns, most notably the cities of Ma`rat al-Numan and then Saraqib in the southeastern Idlib countryside.

The Headquarters for the 'Tahrir Al-Sham' and the other military factions now control only 52% of Idlib and parts of the three adjacent provinces, Aleppo, Hama, and Lattakia, according to the Observatory.

Politically, a new round of talks between the Turkish and Russian delegations will be held within hours in Ankara, on developments in Idlib and Aleppo.