DAMASCUS, Feb 25 (NNN-Xinhua) — Turkish forces and Turkey-backed rebels on Monday managed to capture a town in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib, after two previous failed attempts, a war monitor reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They captured the town of Nairab in the eastern Idlib countryside after eight hours of intense fighting and heavy shelling, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A total of nine Syrian soldiers were killed by the Turkish shelling, the Britain-based watchdog said, adding the Syrian forces fired missiles at the town later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Syrian town is strategic for the Turkish forces and allied rebels given its proximity to the M4 highway which connects Aleppo Province with Latakia Province in northwestern Syria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The town is also considered the gate to Saraqeb, a strategic city captured by the Syrian army recently, as the city overlooks the M5 highway that connects the capital Damascus in the south with Aleppo in the north.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Syrian army has secured the entire M5 highway and opened it for travel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The ongoing battles in Idlib reflect the tension and lack of understanding between Russia and Turkey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Earlier in the day, around 10 Turkish soldiers were killed or wounded after Syrian and Russian warplanes targeted a Turkish observation point in the area of Kinsafra in the southern countryside of Idlib.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Russia-backed Syrian army has been on a crushing offensive to eliminate the ultra-radical rebels in Idlib and nearby Aleppo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Turkey, which supports the rebels, wants to bring the Syrian offensive to a halt in Idlib, thus clashing with the Syrian army from time to time. — NNN-XINHUA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
DAMASCUS, Feb 25 (NNN-Xinhua) — Turkish forces and Turkey-backed rebels on Monday managed to capture a town in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib, after two previous failed attempts, a war monitor reported. They captured the town of Nairab in the eastern Idlib countryside after eight hours of intense fighting and heavy shelling, according to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[217],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63208"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=63208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63208\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=63208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=63208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=63208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}