Syrian government forces re-enter strategic town

The Syrian government forces entered parts of a strategic rebel-held town on Monday, while Turkey said it would keep hitting President Bashar al-Assad's troops after ramping up operations in its biggest intervention yet into the Syrian civil war.

A Syrian state television correspondent in the town of Saraqeb said the army was combing the town after the retreat of Turkey-backed rebels. Rebel sources said clashes were continuing in western parts of the town. Saraqeb has already changed hands twice in less than a month, reflecting its importance as a gateway to the government-controlled northern city of Aleppo and to rebel-held Idlib city to the west.

Rebels said Turkish drones had been striking Syrian army positions on the Saraqeb frontline, hitting at least two rocket launchers. Turkey's Defense Ministry said one of its soldiers was killed and another wounded in shelling by the Syrian government forces in Idlib on Monday.

Fighting has escalated dramatically in recent days in northwestern Syria, where at least 34 Turkish military personnel were killed in the attack on Thursday night and more than 30 others injured in the battle for control of the country's last opposition stronghold.

Turkey on Sunday retaliated by shooting down two Syrian planes in Idlib and struck at least one military airport in Aleppo province, taking the battle deep into the territory controlled by forces loyal to Assad. Damascus had closed airspace over northwest Idlib region following the attack.

Turkey, which has sent thousands of troops and military vehicles in the last month to counter Syrian government forces' advances in the Idlib region, has come closer than ever to direct confrontation in Syria with Russia in recent days after trading threats over air space over Idlib.

Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin are due to meet in Moscow on Thursday to seek agreement on Idlib. Erdogan demanded in early February that Syrian forces withdraw by the end of the month from a "de-escalation zone" around Idlib, as agreed by Turkey, Russia and Iran in 2017, or face being driven back by the Turkish military.
02:56

Idlib is one of the last rebel holdouts in Syria and fears of a return to full-scale conflict has raised concerns of more Syrian migrants heading to the Turkish border. A million people have been displaced since December near Turkey's southern border, causing what the United Nations says may be the worst humanitarian crisis in nine years of war.

Already hosting 3.6 million Syrian refugees, Ankara is determined to prevent any further influx of migrants from Syria. The country opened its western borders on Friday to let migrants reach Europe, in an apparent move to demand EU support in Syria by repudiating a 2016 agreement to shut the frontier and halt migrants traveling from the Middle East towards Europe.

The European Union's chief executive, Ursula von der Leyen, expressed sympathy with Turkey over the conflict in Syria, but said sending migrants to Europe cannot be the answer.

On Monday, a child died on Monday after being pulled from the sea when a boat capsized off the Greek island of Lesbos, according to Greek officials, which is the first reported fatality since Turkey re-opened its border last week. More than 1,000 migrants have arrived by sea on Greek islands since Sunday and more than 10,000 have attempted to cross by land at the border, where guards from both sides have fired tear gas into crowds caught in no-man's land.