Two Turkish soldiers killed in Syria’s Idlib

ANKARA: Two Turkish soldiers were killed in the rebel-held northwestern Syrian province of Idlib, officials said Thursday, the country’s first reported casualties since a ceasefire began earlier this month.

A ceasefire was agreed in Idlib — the last Syrian outpost out of the control of President Bashar al-Assad’s forces — between rebel-backer Turkey and regime-ally Russia which entered into force on March 6. It has largely held.

But Turkey’s ruling party deputy chairman, Mahir Unal, said on Twitter on Thursday that a soldier was killed in a “heinous attack” in the Idlib town of Muhambal.

Unal did not say who was responsible for the attack.

The governorate provided no details on how the soldier was killed or exactly where.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Tuesday that four regime fighters and a rebel were killed in clashes in southern Idlib.

Ankara hopes the ceasefire will stem a months-long government assault on the jihadist-dominated region, which is home to some three million people.

Nearly a million in Idlib were forced to flee towards the Turkish border during a regime-led offensive underway since December, which killed around 500 civilians.