Turkey was bombing Thursday night with Bashar al-Assad regime positions in retaliation for the deaths of 22 Turkish soldiers in the Idleb region (northwest of Syria), the Turkish presidency said.
In a statement issued by the state news agency Anadolu, the presidential communications director Fahrettin Altun also urged the international community to “take his responsibilities“at Idleb.
The heavy losses sustained by Ankara on Thursday come after weeks of escalation in Idleb between Turkish and Bashar al-Assad regime forces, who have clashed repeatedly. Turkey’s casualties on Thursday, bringing the number of Turkish soldiers killed in Idleb to February at least 42, also risk dig a gap between Ankara and Moscow, the main sponsor of the Syrian regime.
Head of State Recep Tayyip Erdogan convened an extraordinary security council in Ankara in the evening, in the presence of the Minister of Defense, the head of the army and the head of the secret services, according to the presidency.
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