A Turkish soldier has been killed in a rocket and mortar attack in the northern Syrian province of Idlib, in one of the country’s de-escalation zones, Turkey’s military said on Tuesday.
At least five soldiers and one civilian employee were also slightly injured when they were targeted at the site of a planned sixth observation point in Idlib city, the Turkish General Staff said in a statement. Turkish forces responded to the attack, the statement added.
During peace talks in the Kazakh capital Astana, the three guarantor countries Turkey, Iran and Russia agreed to establish de-escalation zones – in which acts of aggression are expressly prohibited – in Idlib and in parts of the Aleppo, Latakia, and Hama provinces.
On October 12, 2017, the Turkish military started to cross into the region to establish observation points to monitor the cease-fire regime in the Idlib de-escalation zone.
Under the Astana agreement, Turkey is set to gradually establish 12 observation points, from Idlib’s north to its south.
Idlib, located in northwestern Syria along the Turkish border, faced intense attacks by Bashar al Assad’s regime after a vicious civil war broke out in 2011.
Since March 2015, Idlib has not been under the control of the regime and has been dominated by opposition groups and anti-regime armed organizations.
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