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Long convoys with armored vehicles and military equipment roll from Turkey to Syria. They raise fears of an even greater - and direct - confrontation between the two countries.
Damascus / Istanbul (dpa) - In the last Syrian rebel area Idlib, further military escalation threatens after Turkish troops are fired on.
Since Friday evening, Turkey has brought more than 600 military vehicles across the country's borders, the Syrian Human Rights Observatory said on Sunday. The Turkish state news agency Anadolu reported that convoys with armored personnel carriers had arrived in the border district of Reyhanli and were being transferred to Idlib province.
The Syrian army, supported by Russia, is on the rise in Idlib; Turkey in turn is on the side of the rebels. According to official reports, seven Turkish soldiers and a civilian military employee were killed in Idlib on Monday under Syrian fire. Turkey then launched a retaliatory attack in which several Syrian soldiers died. This increased the fear of a further confrontation between Syrian and Turkish troops. Hundreds of thousands of people are on the run.
According to research by the Südwestrundfunk (SWR) and the ARD studio Cairo, more than 60 Islamists from Germany are said to be in Idlib. Chat protocols show that they work there, among other things, with the al-Qaida-related militia Haiat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which Idlib controls. Messenger services therefore advertise jihad (holy war) and donations from Germany.
Turkey had agreed with Syria's protecting power Russia on a de-escalation zone for Idlib and set up twelve observation posts there. The Turkish Ministry of Defense warned that Ankara would respond "to the strongest" to any attack on these observation posts. The posts are "able to defend themselves," the ministry tweeted on Saturday.
Turkey also negotiated with Russia about the situation in Idlib. Representatives of both countries met in Ankara on Saturday. According to Anadolu, the question was, among other things, how to advance a political process. Anadolu, citing diplomatic sources, said they agreed to continue the talks in the coming weeks.
With the advance of the Syrian army - which recently took up the strategically important location of Sarakib - hundreds of thousands of people fled. Many set off towards the Turkish border. According to the UN emergency agency Ocha, around 586,000 people have been displaced since the beginning of December. An estimated four million people live in northwestern Syria. Pope Francis called on the world community and all concerned to use all diplomatic means to save the lives of civilians.
