HRW urges pressure on Putin to stop Idlib attacks

The Human Rights Watch (HRW) organisation on Saturday urged Europe's defence officials to pressure Russian President Valdimir Putin to put an end to the humanitarian crisis in Syria's Idlib province.

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, HRW director Kenneth Roth described Russia as the "key" to ending the crisis.

Hundreds of thousands are scrambling to escape a widening, multi-front assault on rebel-held areas of Idlib by Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces, who are supported by Moscow.

Roth criticised the "shockingly little attention" dedicated to the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Syria at the conference.

"What is needed now as a matter of humanitarian concern for the people of Idlib and as a matter of basic avoidance of another refugee crisis, is firm pressure on Putin to stop," he said.

Elsewhere at the conference, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu two million people could head for Turkey's border with Syria if no ceasefire is achieved.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said he pushed Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who was also in Munich, for Russia to lean on Assad's government to stop the fighting.