Turkey Refrains From Targeting Civilians: US Expert

Unlike Russia, Iran and the Assad regime, Turkey does not target civilians in Syria, said an American foreign policy expert on Monday.

"Assad's soldiers now move around in ambulances in order to camouflage themselves from the Turks, who have achieved total air superiority in Idlib," Michael Doran, a senior fellow at Hudson Institute, said in a tweet.

"We learn from this, obviously, that the Turks refrain from attacking ambulances," added Doran, who specialises in the Middle East.

Doran shared a video, which went viral on social media, showing Assad regime soldiers moving in an ambulance in northwestern Syria to avoid Turkish drone strikes.

In September 2018, Turkey and Russia agreed to turn Idlib, the last opposition stronghold in Syria, into a de-escalation zone in which acts of aggression are expressly prohibited.

But more than 1,800 civilians have been killed in attacks by regime and Russian forces since then, flouting both the 2018 cease-fire and a new one that started on Jan. 12.

More than 1.7 million Syrians have moved near the Turkish border due to intense attacks over the past year.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday said he will meet his Russian counterpart on Thursday to discuss the situation in Idlib.

He also slammed EU's inaction to the refugee crisis stemming from the Idlib conflict and reiterated his country's commitment to keep gates open for refugees who want to go to Europe.

Their number is over a hundred thousand now but it will soon be millions, Erdogan warned European countries and urged them to live up to their responsibilities. -