Turkey sends huge military reinforcements to Syria’s Idlib
IDLIB, Syria (North Press) – Turkish forces sent on Monday midnight new military reinforcement to its military posts deployed in Idlib Governorate, northwestern Syria.
Eyewitnesses told North Press that a Turkish military convoy, including more than 40 military heavy vehicles, entered from Bab al-Hawa crossing, which is on Syrian-Turkish borders, and headed towards Turkish posts deployed in the southern countryside of Idlib.
On July 1, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Ankara’s new military operation in northern Syria could begin at any moment.
“I always say that we can start [the incursion] at any moment at night. We should not worry and rush, especially since we are working in the area,” Erdogan told reporters after returning from the NATO summit in Madrid.
The convoy included tanks, heavy artillery, armored vehicles, and trucks carrying ammunition and logistic material, in addition to dozens of soldiers, according to the source.
Military sources from the opposition told North Press that the convoy, that comes within the framework of the periodic replacement and reinforcement carried out by the Turkish forces, arrived in a Turkish post located near the town of Balyon in Zawiya Mountain, south of Idlib.
This military reinforcement coincided with military escalation and mutual shelling between Syrian government forces and Turkish-backed opposition factions in the southern countryside of Idlib and the western countryside of Aleppo.
Although the de-escalation zone in northwest Syria is subjected to a Russian-Turkish ceasefire agreement signed in March 2020, the area witnesses frequent mutual bombardment despite the entry of the ceasefire into force.
In March 2020, Russia and Turkey reached an agreement in Moscow that stipulated a ceasefire, the establishment of a safe corridor, and the conduct of joint patrols on the M4/Aleppo-Latakia Highway.