TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club(YJC)_Syria, whose large parts were once infested by the foreign-backed militancy and Takfiri terrorism, has managed to liberate almost all of its militant-held cities, towns and villages from the clutches of an array of militant outfits and Takfiri terrorist groups during the past few years.
However, large parts of the Idlib province are still under the grips of dozens of militant and Takfiri terrorist groups, most of which are those that chose the volatile region to hide and concentrate after suffering defeat against government troops elsewhere in the Arab country.
Being a neighbor of Syria to the north, Turkey has for the past years expressed its strong opposition to the legitimate government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and launched a cross-border offensive into the Arab country’s northwest, mostly Idlib and portions of neighboring Aleppo province, under the pretext of clearing a narrow border area, known as the so-called safe zone, from the presence of “anti-Ankara” Kurdish militants.
Syria and Russia, Syria’s close ally in fighting against militants and terrorists, have condemned Turkey’s cross-border offensive. Back in 2018, Moscow and Ankara reached an Iran-brokered deal, known as the Sochi agreement, to set up a de-militarization zone mainly situated in northern Idlib.
However, Turkey is supporting several armed militants, who have been launching attacks on army and civilian targets from the buffer zone, prompting Damascus to launch an ongoing full-scale offensive last year in a bid to flush out all militant and terrorist groups.
Press TV has just obtained credible information from sources on the ground that the Turkish government is generously offering various kinds of support to roughly 80,000 armed militants in their battles against Syrian government forces and allied fighters from popular defense groups.