Assad regime deploys troops, tanks to wage war against Syria’s Idlib

The Assad regime has speeded up its military deployments to Syria’s northwestern Idlib province, the largest remaining Syrian opposition-held enclave, dispatching dozens of troops, tanks, armored vehicles, missile-launching platforms and Iran-backed Shia militias along the Turkmen Mountain.

The regime has already started to bomb positions belonging to the Syrian opposition along the Jisr ash-Shugur- Turkmen Mountain line, where 3 million people currently reside, according to reports. Qaramanli, Qatana, Obin are reportedly amongst the towns that were harassed by Iran-backed Shia militias.

The Turkish Armed Forces (TAF) in response have started to reinforce its observation points by building concrete walls in the Turkmen Mountain area in Latakia and has been dispatching more than 300 concrete walls from Reyhanlı located at the Turkish border.

Under the Astana agreement, Turkish forces are present at 12 points from Idlib's north to south.

Idlib, located in northwestern Syria on the Turkish border, has faced intense attacks by the Bashar al-Assad regime after a vicious civil war broke out in 2011.

Since March 2015, Idlib is no longer under the control of the Assad regime and has been overrun by opposition groups.

The Astana peace talks were launched on Jan. 23-24, 2017, with the aim of putting an end to violence and improving the humanitarian situation in war-torn Syria.

A so-called senior leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) Aldar Khalil said that if the war starts in Idlib, they would collaborate with the Damascus regime to attack Turkish forces.

Khalil stated that the PKK terror organization’s primary aim is to attack Afrin after Idlib, and for this purpose they will deliver thousands of terrorists to Syria’s Idlib province from the Aleppo-Hama route in cooperation with the Assad regime.

On Jan. 20 Turkey launched Operation Olive Branch to remove YPG/PKK and Daesh terrorists from Afrin. On March 18, Turkish troops and Free Syrian Army members liberated its city center, on the 58th day of the operation.

The Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) and its Syrian offshoot the People's Protection Units (YPG) terrorist group had reached an agreement on delivering the control of Syria’s two major dams, Tabqa and Tishrin, to the Assad regime in exchange for a supply of electricity and water needs in areas occupied by the terror group in early July.