Valery Gerasimov, chief of General staff of Russia, and his Turkish counterpart have discussed on the phone the latest developments in the fragile province in northwestern Syria, Yeni Safak reported on Friday.
Russian and Turkish military chiefs have exchanged the information on Idlib where a de-escalation zone was set last month. Since then, the northwestern part of Syria remains a special attention area, the Turkish army said on Thursday. Turkish troops are in Syria’s north-west as part of an anti-terror and peace mission.
During a phone call, General Yasar Guler, Turkey’s Chief of General Staff and his Russian counterpart have also exchanged views on the current issues and tasks to be done, including the humanitarian aspect. Since mid-January, Idlib is nominally a cease-fire zone, under a deal between Turkey and Russia.
For Turkish troops, this week in Syria was bad, at least five Turkish troops were martyred and five injured in an attack by Assad regime forces in Idlib. That incident followed last week’s attack by regime forces in Idlib which martyred seven Turkish soldiers and one civilian contractor working with the Turkish military. It also injured more than a dozen people.
In retaliation, Turkey neutralized more than 120 Assad regime military personnel since last week.
The city of Idlib has been a stronghold of the opposition and anti-Assad armed groups since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2011.
