Earlier in the day, Syrian air defences downed a Turkish attack drone that had violated Syrian airspace to carry out strikes against government positions in the province, the Russian military said.
Some 29 Turkish servicemen have been killed as a result of an airstrike in the Syrian province of Idlib, Anadolu Agency reported on Thursday citing Rahmi Dogan, the governor of Hatay province is located close to the Turkish border with Syria.
Initially, Dogan reported nine casualties.
“There has been an airstrike by the regime forces against our military in Idlib. After this attack, nine of our soldiers were martyred”, Dogan said. “We have seriously injured, who have been received at our Cilvegozu border gate into Turkey”.
Hatay Valisi Doğan: “İdlib’de rejim kuvvetleri tarafından TSK unsurları hava saldırısına uğramıştır. Bu saldırı sonucu 9 Mehmetçiğimiz şehit olmuştur”
— AA Canlı (@AACanli) February 27, 2020
Meanwhile, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has chaired an emergency security meeting on the situation in Idlib, Anadolu Agency said.
The situation has escalated in the northwestern province of Syria since early February as local militants have intensified attacks against the Syrian government forces. The Russian military has revealed that Ankara had backed the militants in the area with artillery fire.
In December, Damascus launched a counter-terror operation to recapture areas of Idlib that are mostly under the control of the militants from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (formerly known as Al-Nusra Front*).
*Al-Nusra Front (also known as Jabhat al-Nusra, Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, or al-Qaeda in Syria) is a terrorist group outlawed in Russia
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