Troops advance against rebels in final stronghold

DAMASCUS, Syria — Syrian government forces captured new areas from insurgents in their efforts to control a key highway in the northwest Saturday, as Turkey sent more reinforcements into the wartorn country, state media and opposition activists said.

The government offensive has created a humanitarian crisis, with about 600,000 people fleeing their homes in Syria’s last rebel stronghold since the beginning of December, according to the United Nations.

Rebels control much of Idlib province and parts of the neighboring Aleppo region that is home to 3 million people — many of them already displaced from other parts of Syria.

The offensive appears aimed for now at securing a strategic highway in rebelcontrolled territory, as opposed to an allout campaign to retake the entire province, including the city of Idlib, the densely populated provincial capital.

“Our aim is to clear the highway and evict terrorists from it,” a Syrian commander on the ground told state TV. He was referring to the M5 highway, which links the capital Damascus with the northern city of Aleppo.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said government forces still have 18 miles of the highway to clear before it comes under full control of the army for the first time since 2012.

Syrian state TV reported Saturday that government forces captured four villages in

Aleppo province near the highway. It added that Syrian troops and demining experts have cleared explosives and mines from the recently captured town of Saraqeb that sits on an intersection where the M5 meets with the M4 highway, linking Syria’s coast with the country’s east.

The new push came as Turkey, a main backer of the opposition, sent more reinforcements into Idlib, according to the Observatory and media activist Taher alOmar who is embedded with militants.

The Observatory said a convoy consisting of 430 vehicles entered Syria since Friday night, raising the number of vehicles that entered Syria since last weekend to well over 1,000.

A rare clash on Feb. 3, between Turkish troops and

Syrian soldiers left seven Turkish soldiers and a Turkish civilian dead as well as 13 Syrian troops.

On Friday, Turkey’s Defense Ministry warned the army would respond “even more forcefully” to any attack on Turkish observation posts in the area.

Aaref Watad / AFP / Getty Images A Turkish military convoy assembles in the village of alMastumah, a little more than 4 miles from the city of Idlib in northwestern Syria. Rebels control much of Idlib province.