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The Last 24 Hours in Syria, February 4

Zurab Batashvili, Research Fellow at Rondeli Foundation 

• The Syrian government, along with Russian forces, continued to conduct military operations and airstrikes in Idlib province. Turkish forces could not halt them in several places. The Assad regime occupied the M4 (Aleppo-Damascus) highway and several settlements of strategic importance. They approached 8km distance from the city of Idlib;
• The number of victims from the Turkish side increased to 8. After the retaliation of Turkey with the Assad regime, there were much more victims, although Damascus does not announce the exact number;
• Russian aviation continued to bomb fortified opposition strongholds in Idlib province
• There was no telephone conversation between the Presidents of Russia and Turkey;
• Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said it was unacceptable to target the Turkish armed forces. According to him, such action will be answered in the future;
• The US military again blocked the movement of a Russian military convoy into the Hasakah region of northeastern Syria;
• Anti-Russian sentiment in Turkey intensified amid growing confrontation with Russia. According to the Sabah newspaper, 72% of respondents said their attitude towards Russia changed negatively after the events of Idlib and Libya. The same survey showed that only 16% of Turks trust Russia.