Syrian forces make fresh strategic advance despite warning from Turkish president
- Fresh action comes ahead of UN Security Council emergency session on Thursday
- Regime forces penetrated Saraqeb, a town in the province that they had been seeking to encircle for days
Syrian regime forces Wednesday advanced into the strategic town of Saraqeb, a war monitor said, despite a demand from Ankara that Damascus pull back its forces from Turkish-manned posts in Syria’s last rebel enclave.
The demand came two days after clashes between Turkish and Syrian troops killed more than 20 people in the northwestern province of Idlib, testing uneasy relations between rebel backer Turkey and government ally Russia – key foreign power brokers in the country’s conflict.
The UN Security Council is to hold an emergency session on Thursday following requests from the United States, Britain and France, diplomats said. The UN envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen, is expected in New York to report on the situation in Idlib.
“If the regime does not pull back, Turkey will be obliged to take matters into its own hands,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told a meeting of ruling party lawmakers in Ankara, giving Syria until the end of the month to comply.
Syrian regime forces continued to pound Idlib on Wednesday, as part of an offensive which has killed 300 civilians since December and displaced 520,000 people.
