The Turkish Defence Ministry said a day earlier that three civilians had been killed and 12 more had been injured in an attack on its convoy moving toward an observatory point in Idlib Province.
Attacks by Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham militants in Idlib will be crushed, Turkey has been notified about that, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
“Jointly with our Turkish colleagues, in order to stop regular violations by these terrorists of the cessation of hostilities regime, although it does not extend to them, we have made it clear that if they carry out attacks from this zone, they will be severely suppressed. Throughout this year, these provocations have not stopped”, Lavrov said at a press conference, held after his talks with Ghanaian counterpart, Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey.
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS or the “Organisation for the Liberation of the Levant”) is an alliance of militant groups active in Syria. The group, formerly known as Jabhat al-Nusra* is a part of this broader alliance.
He added that in all cases, Turkish colleagues were warned that “we would respond, and this practice can't stop, because the agreement on Idlib does not provide for the extension of the ceasefire regime to terrorists”.
“The developing situation has emerged due to the fact that extremists do not cease their attempts to hit from there [Idlib's areas controlled by militants and the opposition] targets located in other territories of…
