700,000 displaced as Syria conflict escalates

Turkey said it retaliated yesterday after “intense” shelling by Syrian forces killed five of its soldiers and wounded five others in Syria’s northern Idlib province, a marked escalation a week after a similarly deadly clash between the two sides.

The exchange of fire came as a Russian delegation held a second round of talks in the Turkish capital of Ankara to discuss the fighting in Idlib province, which has uprooted more than a half-million people in the past two months. No statement was issued at the end of the talks.

The fighting led to the collapse of a fragile cease-fire brokered by Turkey and Russia in 2018. Turkey supports the Syrian rebels, while Russia heavily backs the Syrian government’s campaign to retake the area, which is the last rebel stronghold in Syria.

A UN official said the number of people displaced by the violence since December 1 reached nearly 700,000, up from 600,000.

“That’s more than 100,000 people in just over a week,” said UN regional spokesman David Swanson. “This could well prove to be the largest number of people displaced in a single period since the Syrian crisis began almost nine years ago.”

The UN “remains deeply alarmed about the safety and protection of more than 3 million civilians in Idlib and surrounding areas, more than half of whom are internally displaced, as reports of airstrikes and shellings continue in Syria,” UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said in New York.

At least 49 civilians were killed between February 1-5, with at least 186 civilians killed in January, he said.

Most of the displaced are living in open-air shelters and temporary homes in rain, snow and freezing temperatures near the Turkish border. Half of the displaced are believed to be children.

The fighting has led Turkey to send hundreds of military vehicles and troops into Idlib province in the past week, bringing both countries’ forces into direct confrontation, a rarity in the Syrian conflict.

Eight Turkish military and civilian personnel and 13 Syrian soldiers were killed in a clash in the province last week. Turkey has warned Syria to retreat to ceasefire lines that were agreed in 2018.

The Syrian government’s campaign appears aimed at securing a strategic highway in rebel-controlled territory for now, rather than seizing the entire province and its densely populated capital, Idlib.

The government-controlled Syrian Central Military Media released a map of the area of fighting showing that Syrian troops only have 15km left from seizing full control of the strategic highway, known as the M5. The highway links the national capital of Damascus with the country’s north.

The Turkish offensive has aimed at pushing Kurdish fighters away from the border. Those Kurdish fighters had been key US allies in the fight against the Islamic State group.

Turkey considers the Syrian Kurdish fighters terrorists linked to a Kurdish insurgency within Turkey.