Media: a convoy of Turkish troops has moved into southern parts of Syria’s Idlib province

According to El Nashra, the troops have taken up positions around observation posts in Jebel al-Zawiya

More than 30 armoured vehicles and military trucks drove as part of a convoy of Turkish troops across the Syrian border into southern Idlib province on Thursday. This was reported by the news portal El Nashra.

The Turkish soldiers, it said, have taken up positions around observation posts in the mountainous Jebel al-Zawiya area, which is under the control of the Syrian armed opposition. Earlier, Turkish soldiers who were stationed in the neighbouring provinces of Aleppo and Hama had moved to the area. Their posts were blocked from all sides by the Syrian army after several localities in the northwestern de-escalation zone were liberated from gangs in January.

On 13 December, the Turkish military dismantled an observation tower with equipment mounted on it in Sarman near the strategic town of Maarret al-Nu’man, located on the Damascus-Aleppo highway.

Idlib is the only region of Syria that has remained in the hands of illegal armed groups since 2012. The fighters who refused to lay down their arms after the Syrian army’s operations in Eastern Ghouta near Damascus and the southern regions of the country have been taken there.