1. Asharq Al-Awsat reported that Turkish ground and air strikes on Syrian regime forces and their allies in northwest Syria’s Idlib have killed 48 pro-Damascus soldiers, including Hezbollah members, in the past 24 hours, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported on Saturday. Among those killed in the strategic eastern Idlib city of Saraqeb are 12 members of Lebanon’s Hezbollah and two of its commanders, the Observatory said. But a commander in the regional alliance backing the head of the Syrian regime, Bashar al-Assad, said that the Turkish strikes on northwest Syria late on Friday killed nine Hezbollah members and wounded 30 others.
2. A Turkish official said Turkey destroyed a chemical warfare facility in Syria on Saturday after dozens of its soldiers were killed by Syrian regime fire in the last-rebel enclave of Idlib province, reported al-Araby al-Jadeed. The Turkish army destroyed overnight “a chemical warfare facility, located some 13 kilometres south of Aleppo, along with a large number of other regime targets,” the senior official told reporters on condition of anonymity. However, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on sources inside the war-torn country, said that Turkey instead hit a military airport in eastern Aleppo, where the monitoring group says there are no chemical weapons.
3. A military source affirmed on Friday that Syrian Arab Army’s units are continuing to respond firmly to repeated attacks by Turkish-backed terrorist organizations on direction of Saraqeb in Idleb. The source said, as per SANA,that in order to cover failure to achieve what Erdogan boasted in Idleb after the army’s recent victories over terrorist organizations, focus is placed on exaggeration , intimidation and doubling size of losses of the army when responding the double attacks by terrorists and Turkey , as well as ignoring the heavy losses
4. Syria affirmed that misleading campaigns carried out by Turkish regime and West countries against it over the past few days, have shown the extent of the great support which these countries have been and still are providing to armed terrorist groups, as well as the great investment they wagered on to achieve their hostile schemes to Syrian people’s aspirations. A source at Foreign and Expatriates Ministry told SANA in a statement on Friday that exaggeration by Turkish and West media outlets regarding losses inflicted upon the Syrian Arab Army in the battles taking place on direction of Saraqeb city and their boasting about them constitute an attempt to raise the collapsing morale of terrorists, and represent an official acknowledgement the involvement by Erdogan’s forces in the fight alongside the terrorist groups, as well as Turkey’s lack of commitment to its obligations under Sochi agreement.
5. The Turkish army is retaliating with artillery fire at regime targets in Syria after an airstrike killed 33 Turkish soldiers in the northwestern Idlib province, two Turkish security officials said on Friday. “All known” Syrian regime targets are under fire by Turkish air and land support units, Turkey’s communications director Fahrettin Altun said separately, according to Anadolu news agency. Turkey has decided to “respond in kind” to the attack by the Syrian regime, Altun added. Turkey will no longer stop Syrian refugees from reaching Europe, a senior Turkish official said late on Thursday as President Tayyip Erdogan chaired an emergency meeting.
This article was edited by The Syrian Observer. The Syrian Observer has not verified the content of this story. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
