Ankara, Oct 13 (AFP) The Turkish army has begun settingup "observation posts" in Syria's largely jihadist-controllednorthwestern Idlib province as part of its efforts to create ade-escalation zone, the military said today.
"On October 12 (yesterday), we began activities toestablish observation posts," the military said in astatement, after local media reported that Turkish troops andarmoured vehicles entered Idlib province late Thursday.
Idlib is largely controlled by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham(HTS), a group led by Al-Qaeda's former Syria affiliate, whichousted more moderate rebels in recent months.
Over 100 soldiers, including special forces, and 30armoured vehicles entered Idlib, Turkey's Hurriyet dailyreported on Friday, as it speculated more troops could be sentto the province over the next few days.
The Turkish army is backing pro-Ankara Syrian rebels, whowill need to oust HTS members in the area to allow Iranian,Russian and Turkish forces to implement the de-escalationzone.
The move comes after the Turkish army launched areconnaissance mission on Sunday as part of efforts by Turkey,along with Russia and Iran, to set up the zone in line withaccords in Astana peace talks aimed at ending the Syrian civilwar.
They agreed on four such ceasefire zones in Syria as aprelude to negotiations.
Three zones are already in place -- in Eastern Ghoutanear Damascus, in central Homs, and in parts of southern Syria-- which are being monitored by Russian military police.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rightsconfirmed late Thursday that a military convoy of Turkishforces entered Idlib before heading towards the western partof Aleppo province.
The fourth de-escalation zone includes Idlib but alsoparts of the neighbouring Latakia, Hama and Aleppo regions.
While Turkey supports Syrian opposition fighters andcalls for the removal of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad,Ankara has worked closely in the last few months with Russia-- who supports Assad -- in the hope of bringing the war to anend.
The Syrian conflict began after widespread protestsagainst the government in 2011 but has since turned into amulti-front war that has killed more than 330,000 people.
(AFP)CPS.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.