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4 years agoon
ANKARA, Turkey — Two more Turkish soldiers were killed Wednesday in a Syrian government attack in Syria’s northwest, the country’s Defense Ministry said, as steady clashes between the two national armies continued to rack up casualties.
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Russian officials have said they hold Turkey responsible for the collapse of a cease-fire agreement reached in Sochi, Russia in 2018. They say Ankara has failed to honor the deal and rein in militants who continued attacking Syrian and Russian targets. Turkey has rejected the Russian assertion, saying Ankara was making progress against radical groups in Idlib when the Syrian government launched its offensive.
Earlier on Wednesday, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov assailed Turkey for shielding “terrorists” in Idlib, a statement that reflected Moscow’s forceful posture ahead of the Syria talks.
In a statement, Konashenkov said that under the 2018 agreement with Russia, Turkey was obliged to ensure that militants in Idlib pull back 15-20 kilometers (9-12 miles) from the de-escalation zone along with their heavy weapons. Instead, he argued, al-Qaida-linked militants “and other terrorist groups pushed moderate rebels north toward the border with Turkey.”
Konashenkov also assailed the West for turning a blind eye to Turkish military action in Syria “in violation of international law” and treating Turkish threats to destroy Syrian army units as a “legitimate self-defense.”
Syrian opposition activists reported intense clashes near the government-held town of Saraqeb that sits on a major highway linking Syria’s two largest cities, Damascus and Aleppo. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said Turkish drone attacks near Saraqeb killed nine Syrian soldiers.
The Russian military said in a statement Wednesday that “a group of terrorists” made a failed attempt to detonate ammunition placed next to chemical storage tanks in the western part of Saraqeb two days ago. It claimed that the failed attempt was a bid to blame the Syrian government for launching a chemical attack.
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