By Wary of a confrontation with Turkey that could suck Moscow into a military quagmire, Russia is likely to take a gradual approach to helping the Syrian government capture the last rebel bastion of Idlib, analysts and diplomats say.
President Bashar al-Assad’s army, aided by heavy Russian air strikes, has swept through dozens of towns in Idlib province in the last two weeks in the deepest advance in years, forcing tens of thousands to flee to the Turkish border.
But Russia is unlikely to lend its military muscle for a full-on advance on densely populated Idlib city.
Such a push would help Assad regain full control of Syria, which he and his late father before him ruled for a total of nearly 50 years, but it would also risk a major confrontation with Turkey, which backs opposition forces in the war.
Instead, Russia appears intent on “biting” chunks of rebel turf in a piece by piece approach, a senior Western intelligence source told Reuters.
Turkey, which already hosts 3.6 million Syrian refugees, has threatened military action if Assad’s forces do not retreat by the end of the month and has reinforced Turkish outposts in the region and set up new ones to try to slow the advance.
“The regime has come very close to Idlib (city),” a Turkish official told Reuters. “The rules of engagement in Syria changed, a new era has started now.”
The crackle of gunfire can now be heard by the more than a million inhabitants living in the city, many of them Syrians displaced by government assaults on their territory.
“People everywhere are terrified, people are sleeping in the streets and cars, there is no place to stay,” Ibrahim Samaan al Hajj, a grocer in the city said.
Source:- Reuters
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