Turkey vows to retaliate if army posts in Idlib threatened

Turkey warned yesterday it will retaliate “in self-defence” if any of its army posts in northwest Syria are threatened amid increasing attacks by regime forces on the country’s last major opposition bastion.

Ankara established 12 observation posts under a September 2018 deal with Russia, a major ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, to prevent any onslaught in Idlib.

The city is home to some three million people, around half of whom have been displaced by violence in other areas.

But despite a ceasefire arranged by Damascus and Ankara, which backs the rebels, the regime’s deadly offensive has sparked an exodus of thousands of civilians toward the Turkish border.