Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday pro-Ankara jihadists in Syria were staging a new military operation in Syria's jihadist-controlled Idlib province.
"We are taking new steps to ensure security in Idlib. Today there's a serious operation in Idlib and it will continue, because we have to extend a hand to our brothers in Idlib and to our brothers who arrived in Idlib," Erdoğan said. He later told reporters the operation was led by Free Syrian Army (FSA) militants and that the Turkish army was not yet operating there.
"Now this step has been taken, and it is underway," he said, adding that Turkish forces were not yet involved at that it was a rebel operation so far. In the past weeks, the Turkish military has been dispatching tanks and armoured vehicles to the border with Idlib.
Idlib is largely controlled by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a group led by Al-Qaeda's former Syria affiliate. HTS is not party to a deal brokered by Russia, Turkey and Iran for the safe zone in the province, one of four such "de-escalation" zones across Syria.
Erdoğan told journalists that Turkey would provide security inside Idlib and Russia on the periphery. Last month, a negotiated "de-escalation zone" in the mostly jihadists-held province of Idlib was announced during talks in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan.
