Turkey has sent significant numbers of tanks and troops deep into Syria in an apparent bid to reinforce the town of Khan Sheikhun, where 92 people died in a 2017 sarin gas attack, one of the war’s most infamous atrocities. Columns of Turkish forces, amounting to Ankara’s largest incursion into Syria of the eight-year conflict, crossed the southern border into Idlib province early on Monday, accompanied by Arab proxy forces.
Their advance was slowed by regime airstrikes that stopped them reaching the town in southern Idlib, where a battle continues to rage between anti-Assad groups and forces fighting on behalf of the Syrian leader. Ankara decried the airstrikes, and claimed its convoy was travelling towards outposts already established in the region under an agreement with Russia. Turkey claimed the airstrike hit its convoy, killing three civilians.
The intervention comes at a pivotal time in the fight for Idlib – the last corner of Syria without a regime presence – and was seen as a move to bolster a withering armed opposition and a beleaguered population of more than 3 million people.
