Turkey bolsters military presence in Syria’s Idlib

Istanbul : Turkey’s military has sent its most significant batch of reinforcements to the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib in weeks, reports said Monday, as Ankara seeks to prevent a Moscow-backed assault by forces of President Bashar al-Assad.

The reports came as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan prepared to meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Sochi in a new bid to warn the Kremlin against seeking to take rebel-held Idlib by force. Under a deal agreed with Russia, Turkey has already set up 12 so-called observation points inside Idlib aimed at monitoring a de-escalation of violence.