MAARET AL-NOMAN,
Syria: Militants and allied rebels withdrew from a key area of northwestern
Syria yesterday, a war monitor said, as President Bashar Al-Assad's forces
pressed an offensive against Idlib region. Turkey warned Damascus "not to
play with fire" after the advance saw government fighters almost encircle
a patch of countryside including an important Turkish monitoring post.

After eight years
of civil war, the Idlib region on the border with Turkey is the last major
stronghold of opposition to Assad's Russia-backed government. Since January, it
has been administered by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham alliance, which is led by
jihadists from Syria's former Al-Qaeda affiliate. The region of some three million
people was supposed to be protected by a buffer zone deal signed last September
by Moscow and rebel backer Ankara, but government and Russian forces have
subjected it to heavy bombardment since late April, killing almost 880
civilians. And in recent weeks, regime forces have inched forward at the
southern edges of the bastion.

In the early
hours of yesterday, anti-Assad fighters pulled back from the town of Khan
Sheikun and the countryside to its south, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory
for Human Rights monitoring group said. The withdrawal means a key Turkish
observation point in the nearby town of Morek, as well as a string of
surrounding villages, are effectively surrounded by government forces,
Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP. All roads leading out of the area
are either controlled by government forces or within range of their guns, he
said.

Turkey's Foreign
Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said his country had no intention to move the post
from Morek. "We will do whatever is necessary to ensure the security of
our soldiers and observation posts," he said. An HTS spokesman, meanwhile,
denied its forces had withdrawn from the countryside around Morek, adding they
had regrouped in the south of Khan Sheikhoun after heavy bombardment.

Russia claimed
rebel attacks against a key Russian air base to the west of Idlib and on
regime-held civilian areas had continued despite the presence of the Turkish
posts. "We have warned our Turkish colleagues that we would respond,"
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. Assad also hit out at Turkey in a
statement, saying "the latest battles in Idlib uncovered... Ankara's clear
and unlimited support for terrorists", using his term for both militants
and rebels.

Khan Sheikhoun
lies on the highway connecting Damascus to second city Aleppo, which has long
been a key government objective. On Monday, a Turkish military convoy crossed
the border into Idlib and headed south along the highway, drawing condemnation
from Damascus. Ankara alleged an air strike had targeted its troops, while a
Syrian pro-government newspaper said regime aircraft had targeted a rebel
vehicle leading them.

Yesterday, the
convoy was at a standstill just north of Khan Sheikhoun, after government
forces to the south cut the road into the town the previous day. An AFP
correspondent said air strikes and machine gunfire from government helicopters
peppered the road leading back north. Air raids continued on areas north of
Khan Sheikhoun yesterday, including in the town of Binin where the AFP reporter
saw a man pulled from the rubble alive.

The war has
killed more than 370,000 people since it started with the brutal repression of
anti-government protests in 2011. Successive rounds of UN-backed peace talks
have failed to stem the bloodshed, and in recent years have been overshadowed
by a parallel negotiations track led by Russia and Turkey, dubbed the Astana
process. Under the September deal, Turkish troops were to monitor a planned
buffer zone around Idlib after militants had withdrawn from it - but that
pullout failed to materialize.

Syria expert Sam
Heller said the government's latest advance had shown Turkish monitoring points
might complicate its recapture of territory, but could not prevent it.
"It's not yet clear what Damascus and Moscow will do next," he said.
It is unclear "if they will seize the opportunity to take more areas, or
stop to consolidate their new positions and put some pressure on Ankara"
to implement its side of the buffer zone deal, he told AFP.

Analyst Samuel
Ramani said the government's accusation of Turkish support for its opponents
could provide a "pretext for further Syrian army incursions". But
"for Russia, holding the Astana coalition together is a chief
priority," he said. Aid organizations have warned any large-scale
government offensive to retake Idlib would spark one of the worst humanitarian
crises of the war. - AFP