A group of tanks and armored infantry vehicles from various units of the Turkish army has reached the Antakya district of the Hatay Province, bordering the Syrian province of Idlib, Turkey's Anadolu news agency reported.
Fighting in northwestern Syria has intensified over the last several weeks, despite the new ceasefire, agreed during the talks in the Kazakh capital of Nur-Sultan in early August. On August 5, the Syrian army launched an offensive in Idlib province, citing the militants’ failure to respect the truce.
Last week, the aide of Syrian President Bashar Assad, Bouthaina Shaaban, said that the government troops may eliminate Turkish observation points in the Idlib de-escalation zone to cut off supplies of terror groups that are operating in the area.
Earlier on Friday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that Russia had guaranteed that Turkish observation posts in Syria's Idlib would be secure amid Damascus' offensive.