UPDATE - 22 Turkish soldiers martyred in Syrian regime attack

UPDATES WITH FRESH DEATH TOLL, CHANGES HEADLINE

By Ibrahim Erikan and Lale Koklu Karagoz

ANKARA (AA) - At least 22 Turkish soldiers were martyred in an airstrike by the Bashar al-Assad regime in Idlib, northwestern Syria, a Turkish official said late Thursday.

“There are critically wounded [people, following the attack,] and they are being treated at the hospital," Rahmi Dogan, the governor of the Turkish southern Hatay province, told Anadolu Agency.

While the initial number of the martyrs was nine, it rose to 22 in the following hours.

Following the attack, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu spoke with NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg over the phone, according to diplomatic sources, but no information on the topic of discussion was disclosed.

In September 2018, Turkey and Russia agreed to turn Idlib into a de-escalation zone in which acts of aggression are expressly prohibited.

But more than 1,300 civilians have been killed in attacks by the regime and Russian forces in the de-escalation zone since then as the cease-fire continues to be violated.

The de-escalation zone is currently home to 4 million civilians, including hundreds of thousands displaced in recent years by regime forces throughout the war-torn country.

More than 1.7 million Syrians have moved near the Turkish border due to intense attacks.

Since the eruption of the bloody civil war in Syria in 2011, Turkey has taken in some 3.7 million Syrians who fled their country, making it the world’s top refugee-hosting country.

*Writing by Sena Guler and Faruk Zorlu