Turkey sent more reinforcements into northwestern Syria on Thursday, setting up new positions in an attempt to stop a Syrian government offensive on the last rebel stronghold in the war-torn country, state media and opposition activists said.
The move came after a rare confrontation between Turkey and Syria on Monday that killed seven Turkish soldiers and a Turkish civilian member of the military, as well as 13 Syrian soldiers.
In Moscow, the Foreign Ministry announced that Russian soldiers have been killed in a northern Syrian province alongside Turkish servicemen, without saying when the incident occurred.
The ministry blamed "terrorists" for the deaths, saying that the attacks in Idlib province intensified in January.
"Russian and Turkish military specialists died tragically," the statement said, without specifying when and how many Russian soldiers were killed.