9 regime fighters killed in northwest Syria in Turkish shelling

Turkish shelling has killed nine fighters belonging to the Syrian regime in the northwestern part of the country. The regime fighters were killed on Monday. Over 100 were killed on both sides of the conflict as Damascus and the regime attack the last major rebel bastion, according to reports.

Major offensive to take back Idlib

According to a Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, four of the fighters who lost their lives were near the village of Nayrab. The other five were killed near Saraqib which is in northwestern Syria and administratively falls under the Idlib Governorate. The regime forces have since December last year won back large parts of the major opposition stronghold of Idlib.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday said that he will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron on March 5 to discuss the situation in northwest Syria. Erdogan, however, did not specify where the meeting would be held. He reportedly said that Turkey "determined our road map" for Syria after calls on Friday with the Russian, German and French leaders.

Erdogan while speaking in the Izmir province said that he had help telephonic conversations with Putin, Macron and Merkel on Idlib and that they would on March 5 to discuss the topic again. This latest announcement by Erdogan comes after a Turkish soldier was killed in Syria's Idlib province in a bomb attack by the Russian-backed government forces.

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According to reports, the situation in Syria has greatly deteriorated and nearly a million people have been displaced because of the conflict.

“The man-made humanitarian nightmare for the long-suffering Syrian people must stop,” UN chief Antonio Guterres while addressing international media reporters had said. He added that there wasn’t any military but only a political solution to the crisis. Though during his address at the UN headquarters, he did not talk about any specific plan for curbing the bloodshed in longest rebel holdout, international media reported. 

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