Turkey Declares Major Offensive Against Syrian Government

Source:New York Times Date:02Mar2020

A very useful primer on what is going on in Idlib, as well as among Turkey-Russia and USA

Turkey has asked the United States to provide Patriot missiles to help it against Russian and Syrian air power, but Washington is demanding that Turkey first make inoperable the Russian S-400 missile defense system that it acquired last year from Russia. President Trump said Saturday that a possible sale of Patriot missiles to Turkey was under discussion, Anadolu reported.

The turning point for Turkey may have been the strike last week on its soldiers in northern Syria, the death toll for which may have been substantially higher than disclosed, analysts said. The well-connected military analyst Metin Gurcan described it as “Turkey’s darkest night” in an article on the online outlet Al-Monitor.