Turkey vows strong military action if Syria truce violated

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed Wednesday that his military would launch its harshest retaliation yet if the Syrian government breaks a fragile truce in Idlib province brokered last week.

The cease-fire arranged by Turkey and Russia — which support opposing sides in the conflict — halted a three-month air and ground campaign by the Syrian government against the rebel-held province. That offensive killed hundreds and sent 1 million people fleeing toward the Turkish border.

The Russian-backed Syrian government offensive made significant gains in Syria's last rebel stronghold, and Turkey sent thousands of troops across the border to reinforce the rebels, leading to rare direct fighting between Syrian and Turkish troops.

This Tuesday, March. 10, 2020 photo, released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, shows workers removing barriers from the road that links Syria's coastal region with the northern city of Aleppo, in Latakia province, Syria. The reopening of the M4 highway that has been closed since 2012 is part of a deal reached earlier this month between Turkey and Russia that stopped a Russian-backed government offensive on the northwestern province of Idlib, the last rebel stronghold in the country. (SANA via AP)

“If those across from us don’t keep their promise, we will never shy away from advancing on them in a much more serious way than before,” Erdogan said in his weekly address to his ruling party's legislators.

Erdogan said there had been a number of small violations of the truce, which Turkey was monitoring carefully.

He said Turkey's priority would be the security of its troops manning a dozen observation posts inside Idlib. Some of those posts now fall within Syrian government-controlled territory. The posts are in place as part of a previous cease-fire agreement reached in 2018.

This Tuesday, March. 10, 2020 photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, shows workers removing barriers from the road that links Syria’s coastal region with the northern city of Aleppo, in Latakia province, Syria. The reopening of the M4 highway that has been closed since 2012 is part of a deal reached earlier this month between Turkey and Russia that stopped a Russian-backed government offensive on the northwestern province of Idlib, the last rebel stronghold in the country. (SANA via AP)

“The security of our observation posts is at the top of our priorities. In the event of the smallest attack there, we not only will retaliate, we will reciprocate more heavily,” Erdogan said.

Erdogan added that Turkey was engaged in efforts to turn the cease-fire into a more lasting truce.

"We fought the necessary fight, and as a result signed a temporary ceasefire in Moscow. Now the issue is to transform this temporary cease-fire into a permanent one and we are swiftly pursuing that," he said.

Man bakes bread in the city of Idlib, Syria, Monday, March 9, 2020 during the truce, brokered by Turkey and Russia, which halted a terrifying three-month air and ground campaign that killed hundreds and sent 1 million people fleeing toward the Turkish border. (AP PhotoGhaith Alsayed)

Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar told reporters that talks with a Russian delegation about the technicalities of the truce were progressing in a "positive and constructive" manner. The delegation arrived Tuesday.

The current deal sets up a security corridor along Syria's M4 highway, running east-west in Idlib. Russian and Turkish troops are scheduled to begin joint patrols along the M4 on March 15.

The cease-fire deal also appeared to achieve Moscow’s key goal of allowing the Syrian government to keep hold of the strategic north-south highway known as the M5. Syrian forces had captured its last segments in the latest offensive, which began in early December.

BEIRUT (AP) — The United States has repatriated 11 of its citizens from sprawling camps in northeastern Syria that house tens of thousands of family members of suspected Islamic State militants, the U.S. State Department said Tuesday.

The repatriation was the largest Washington has carried out from the camps to date, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement. Five of the 11 citizens brought back were children, and one non-U.S. citizen child -- the 9-year-old sibling of one of the other children -- was also brought with them.

As part of the same operation, the U.S. facilitated the repatriation of 11 other camp residents, eight of them children, to Canada, the Netherlands and Finland, the statement said.

Although the pace of repatriations has picked up -- neighboring Iraq recently returned hundreds of its citizens -- many countries remain reluctant to bring back citizens from the al Hol and al Roj camps, which now hold about 30,000 people from more than 60 countries, most of them children.

The camps are run by local authorities affiliated with the U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces. The SDF and its allies, including U.S.-led coalition forces, defeated the Islamic State group in Syria in 2019, ending its self-proclaimed Islamic “caliphate” that had ruled over a large swath of territory straddling Iraq and Syria.

Human rights groups have regularly reported on what they describe as inhumane living conditions and abuses in the camps and in detention centers where suspected IS members are housed.

“The only durable solution to the humanitarian and security crisis” in the facilities “is for countries to repatriate, rehabilitate, reintegrate, and where appropriate, ensure accountability for wrongdoing,” Blinken said in the statement.

FILE - Kurdish forces patrol al-Hol camp, which houses families of members of the Islamic State group in Hasakeh province, Syria, on April 19, 2023. The United States has repatriated 11 of its citizens from sprawling camps in northeastern Syria that house tens of thousands of family members of suspected Islamic State militants, the U.S. State Department said Tuesday May 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Baderkhan Ahmad, File)

FILE - Women shop in the marketplace at al-Hol camp, home to families of Islamic State fighters, in Hasakeh province, Syria, on March 31, 2019. The United States has repatriated 11 of its citizens from sprawling camps in northeastern Syria that house tens of thousands of family members of suspected Islamic State militants, the U.S. State Department said Tuesday May 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo, File)