Assad forces enter strategic Idlib town despite Turkey’s warnings

Source:Daily Sabah Date:06Feb2020

Regime forces penetrated Saraqib, a town in the province that they had been seeking to encircle for days, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The monitoring group said regime forces had “begun to comb districts of Saraqib and are at the point of taking control of all of the M5 road,” while opposition groups had withdrawn to a village north of the town.

Later in the day, the Observatory reported clashes inside the town between Syrian regime troops and opposition fighters backed by Turkey. Turkish troops stationed north of Saraqib shelled Syrian regime troops north and west of the town and the opposition counterattack successfully pushed Syrian regime troops back to the southern edge of town, the Observatory said.