Turkey said on Friday that a regime airstrike on its forces in northwestern Syria has killed 33 of its troops. The attack has caused the largest death toll for Ankara in a single day since it first intervened in the Syrian conflict in 2016.
The airstrike came after a Russian delegation spent two days in Ankara for talks with Turkish officials on the situation in Idlib.
Russia's Defence Ministry said Friday the Turkish troops should not have been in the Syrian area where they were and that Ankara had not informed Moscow in advance about their location. However, it also confirmed that Russian war planes had not carried out strikes in the area where Turkish troops were.
"The Turkish troops had been hit by artillery fire from Syrian government forces who were trying to repel an offensive by militants," the Defence Ministry added.
It also said Moscow had done everything to ensure the Syrian regime ceased fire to allow the troops to evacuate.
Turkey has had 54 soldiers killed in Syria's northwestern Idlib province since the beginning of February, including the latest fatalities, The Associated Press reported.
Amid the mounting tensions over Idlib, Russia also decided to send two warships armed with cruise missiles to waters off the Syrian coast.
For his part, a senior Turkish official commented on the incident on Friday saying that Ankara would no longer stop Syrian refugees from reaching Europe.
Omer Celik, spokesman for Erdogan's ruling party, said Turkey was “no longer able to hold refugees following the Syrian attack."
