Syrian civil war

According to "Russia Today", the Turkish-funded militants have been targeting Syrian army positions.
The Russian ministry adds that Turkish forces ceased the attack after Moscow made contact with Ankara.
Turkey should suspend support for "terrorist groups" in Syria's Idlib province, Russia's Defense Ministry said.

Turkey's Defense Ministry announced on Feb. 20 that two Turkish soldiers were killed and five more were wounded in an air strike in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib.

An estimated 170,000 of the 900,000 civilians forced from their homes in a massive wave of displacement in northwestern Syria are living out in the open, the U.N. said on Feb. 20.    

The largest displacement since the civil war in Syria broke out nearly nine years ago comes in the thick of winter, with temperatures often dipping below zero Celsius and snow covering some districts.  

Russia and Turkey are on the verge of an armed conflict in the Syrian province of Idlib, according to US Department of Defense official Jonathan Hoffman. At the same time, the Pentagon hopes that direct confrontation and hostilities between the two countries in Syria will be avoided, EA Daily reports.

Turkey and Russia are discussing possible joint patrols around Syria's northwestern Idlib region as one option to ensure security there, a Turkish official said on Thursday, as Ankara ramped up threats of a military offensive in the region.

Turkish organizations dispatched 10 trucks of humanitarian aid Feb. 19 to Syria's northwestern city of Idlib, which has been under severe bombardment from forces of the Bashar al-Assad regime.

The U.S. will continue to coordinate with Turkey in Idlib, Syria where an ongoing offensive has displaced nearly 900,000 civilians since December, Washington's envoy to the U.N. Kelly Craft said on Feb. 19.

Moscow strongly opposes the operation, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, adding that Russia and Ankara remain in touch to try to prevent further escalation of tensions in Idlib, Reuters reported.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Feb. 19 that talks with Russia on the northwestern Syrian region of Idlib were far from meeting Turkey's demands and warned that a military operation there was a "matter of time".

Turkey's presidential spokesman said on Feb. 18 that Ankara's policy in Idlib, the restive Syrian province, is based on the 2018 Sochi deal reached with Russia.

"Returning to the Sochi deal is the baseline of Turkey's policy for Idlib," Kalın told reporters in the capital Ankara, as meetings concluded between Turkish-Russian delegations on Idlib in Moscow.