Syrian army, Turkey in deadly flare-up

BEIRUT — Syrian and Turkish troops traded deadly fire in Syria's northwest on Monday, further raising tension between Ankara and regime backer Moscow over the war-torn Idlib rebel enclave.

The tit-for-tat shelling between Damascus and Ankara was the deadliest since Turkey deployed troops in Syria in 2016 and escalated tensions between the conflict's two top foreign brokers.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called Monday for Russia to "assume its obligations", telling a news conference in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev," I hope that everyone will assume their obligations under the Astana and Sochi agreements", in an implicit reference to Russia.

"It cannot continue like this and a response has been given," Erdogan said. "We will make them pay the necessary price and will continue to do so."

The overnight clash began with Syrian shelling on Turkish positions in Idlib, hours after a Turkish military convoy of at least 240 vehicles entered northwest Syria, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor.

The attack killed four Turkish soldiers and wounded nine others despite previous coordination on where Ankara's forces would be in the region, Turkey's defence ministry said.

The Russian defence ministry said Ankara had failed to give prior warning of its troop movements at the time of the incident.

Retaliatory rocket attacks by Ankara on Syrian army positions later killed at least 13  troops and wounded 20 others in Idlib and the neighbouring provinces of Hama and Latakia, the observatory said.

Most Syrian troops were killed south of Saraqeb, a flashpoint Idlib town that Damascus has been trying to encircle in recent days, said the observatory.

State news agency SANA said the Syrian army had not suffered any casualties.

A senior Turkish official said that the Syrian army attack on Turkish troops and the government offensive in general were conducted “with Russian protection”.

“Russia should remove this protection from the regime elements which attack Turkish forces in this region,” ruling party spokesman Omer Celik told CNN Turk. “Our target is not Russia,” he said.