The Turkish Army continued their military buildup in Idlib and sent several reinforcements amid concerns that it won't meet its commitments to open Aleppo-Latakia road. This came as the launch of Turkish-Russian patrols, agreed upon in Moscow on March 5, were hindered.
Turkey failed to halt protests of Idlib residents and convince Hayat Tahrir al-Sham not to obstruct the patrols. The first Turkish-Russian patrol was disrupted on March 15 and cut short. The same scenario occurred with the second and third patrols.
In the past two weeks, the Turkish forces deployed several checkpoints on the road and also removed berms placed by protesters from Idlib.
Based on agreement with Russia, Turkey is in charge of separating al-Nusra Front from moderate Syrian opposition factions. Until this moment, Turkey failed to accomplish this because it attempted to do so through causing dissections in Hayat Tahrir al-Sham – by which al-Nusra Front is its basic component.
Reports said up to 30 Turkish armored vehicles entered northwestern Syria in addition to several armored vehicles and army personnel.
The number of Turkish military units that entered the “de-escalation zone”, since the new ceasefire came into effect, has risen to 2,460, in addition to the entry of thousands of soldiers. Military checkpoints also increased from 12 to 58 since the end of last year.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights have confirmed that regime forces fired several rockets Saturday morning, targeting Al-Haddadah area in Latakia mountains, and Al-Bara town in Jabal Al-Zawiyah in the southern countryside of Idlib.
Syrian Observatory activists reported earlier that regime forces fired several rockets in the early hours of Friday, targeting areas in Sfuhen in Jabal Al-Zawiyah in the southern countryside of Idlib.
