Five Turkish soldiers killed in attack in northwest Syria

ANKARA:  Syrian government forces attacked a Turkish military post in the Taftanaz area of northwest Syria’s Idlib on Monday, Turkish officials said, and broadcaster NTV cited the Turkish Defense Ministry as saying five soldiers were killed.

The officials told Reuters that Turkish forces were retaliating after the strike on Taftanaz, where Turkey recently sent forces in response to advances by Syrian government forces.

Meanwhile, Russian air strikes killed at least five civilians in the last major opposition bastion in northwestern Syria bringing the death toll to 25 in less than 24 hours, a monitor said.

The early morning raids hit a populous village in Aleppo province where battles between Russia-backed regime forces and their opponents have raged for weeks, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The victims include at least one child and a number of internally displaced Syrians, the Britain-based monitor said.

It follows a night of heavy bombardment by Russia and the regime that left at least 20 civilians dead in the neighboring provinces of Idlib and Aleppo, according to the Observatory.

A Russian delegation returned to Turkey on Monday for further talks over rising tensions in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province, after an initial round last week failed to yield results, Turkey’s foreign minister said.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Turkish and Russian delegations exchanged proposals over the situation in Idlib during a first meeting in Ankara on Saturday. On Monday, the Russian team returned to Ankara from a visit to Jordan, for further discussions, he said.

“If a compromise had been reached there would have been no need for today’s meeting,” Cavusoglu told reporters. He said the Turkish and Russian leaders could step in if no compromise is reached.

Since December, Syrian government forces backed by Moscow have pressed a blistering assault against the Idlib region in the country’s northwest and recaptured town after town.

The Idlib region, including slivers of neighboring Aleppo and Latakia provinces, is the last major opposition bastion and dominated by rebels and militants.

The violence has killed more than 300 civilians and sent some 586,000 fleeing toward relative safety near the Turkish border.

Some three million people, half of them already displaced by Syria’s devastating war, live in the rebel bastion.

Some 50,000 fighters are also in the shrinking pocket, many of them militants but the majority allied rebels, according to the Observatory.

On Sunday raids by regime ally Russia left 14 people dead, including nine in the village of Kar Nuran in southwestern Aleppo province, the monitor said.

Syrian air raids with crude barrel bombs also killed four civilians in the Atareb district east of Aleppo, while another died in artillery fire near the city of Jisr Al-Shughur and one in Ketian village in southern Idlib.

Regime and Russian forces have intensified their attacks on Aleppo in recent days as government forces close in on a two-kilometer section of the M5 highway that remains outside of their control.

The key motorway connects Damascus to second city Aleppo and is economically vital to the government after nine-years of war.