NATO said it is condemning “indiscriminate airstrikes by the Syrian regime and Russia,” Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said, after reports said that dozens of Turkish soldiers were killed in an attack near Syria’s Idlib on Thursday.
Turkey requested an urgent NATO security meeting on Friday following the bombing. But Stoltenberg did not elaborate on any changes that NATO might make in the area.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump spoke with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday and later “condemned yesterday’s attack that killed Turkish personnel in Syria,” White House deputy press secretary Judd Deere said in a statement.
“President Trump reaffirmed his support for Turkey’s efforts to de-escalate the situation in northwest Syria and avoid a humanitarian catastrophe. The two leaders agreed that the Syrian regime, Russia, and the Iranian regime must halt their offensive before more innocent civilians are killed and displaced,” Deere said.
The ministry stated that Ankara had informed Russia that “no units of the Turkish armed forces were in the area of the village of Behun and they shouldn’t have been there.” When Russia became aware of the airstrike, it allowed for a ceasefire to allow Turkey to evacuate its dead and wounded, said the ministry.
At the same time, hundreds of migrants in Turkey started arriving on the borders with Greece and Bulgaria on Friday after a senior Turkish official said Ankara would no longer abide by a 2016 EU deal and stop refugees from reaching Europe.
Greece and Bulgaria, both European Union member states, vowed not to admit the migrants. Greek police used smoke grenades at one border crossing, while Bulgaria sent an extra 1,000 troops to its border with Turkey.
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