Syrian regime forces Wednesday pressed on with their offensive in the northwest that has displaced half a million people, despite heightened tensions with Turkey.
Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan threatened on Wednesday to drive back Syrian troops in Idlib unless they withdraw by the end of the month to stem an assault which he said had displaced nearly 1 million people.
Shelling by Syrian government forces killed eight Turkish military personnel on Monday, prompting Turkish forces to strike back. The escalation raised concerns over future collaboration between Ankara and Moscow, which have backed opposing sides in the war despite joint efforts to ease the violence.
Erdogan said two of Turkey's 12 observation posts, set up around a "de-escalation zone" in northwest Syria's Idlib region as part of a 2017 agreement with Russia and Iran, were now behind Syrian government front lines.
"We hope that the process of the regime pulling back behind our observation posts is completed in the month of February," he told members of his AK Party. "If the regime does not pull back during this time, Turkey will have to do this job itself."
He said the Turkish military would carry out air and ground operations in Idlib, when necessary.
Intensive aerial bombardment and ground fighting in the militant-dominated Idlib region since December have killed almost 300 civilians and triggered one of the largest waves of displacement in the nine-year war.
UN regional spokesman David Swanson said 520,000 people had been displaced since the beginning of December and the numbers could swell further.
The United Nations and aid groups have condemned the escalation and called for an end to hostilities in a region that is home to three million people, half of them already displaced from other parts of Syria.
Erdogan said nearly one million people were moving towards the Turkish border and Syrian territory under Turkish control. "No one has the right to place such a weight on our shoulders," he said.
He warned on Tuesday that his country would not allow Syrian forces to gain more ground and accused them of driving "innocent and grieving people" towards the Turkish border.
But Russian-backed Syrian regime forces on Wednesday pressed on with their offensive in Idlib, where they have seized more than 20 towns and villages from rebels and militants over the past 24 hours, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and state news agency SANA.
With their latest advance, Damascus loyalists have nearly encircled Saraqeb in southern Idlib and were now within one kilometer (less than a mile) of the strategic highway town which has been emptied of its residents following weeks of bombardment, the Observatory said.
Holdout rebels and militants can only exit from the north, with regime forces deployed on all other sides, according to the war monitor group.
