A Turkey-backed Syrian fighter standing Thursday in the town of Saraqib in northwestern Syria’s Idlib province, the target of a continuing a Russian-backed offensive by the Syrian regime.
Photo: omar haj kadour/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesREYHANLI, Turkey—At least 29 Turkish soldiers were killed in northwestern Syria on Thursday, Turkish officials said, plunging Turkey deeper into the war there, as a Russian-backed Syrian military offensive sought to reclaim the last rebel stronghold.
The soldiers were killed by Syrian regime forces, according to the governor of Turkey’s Hatay province, which borders Syria. Turkish officials said another 36 were wounded.
As the news spread, crowds of Turkish civilians gathered in concern at a government hospital in the town of Reyhanli, on the Syrian border, where wounded Turkish troops were said to have been treated. Dozens of police and an armored vehicle were deployed to seal off the building.
The deaths, which raised Turkey’s troop losses to at least 49 this month, add to the dilemma facing President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who said last week it was only a matter of time before he launched a military operation in Syria’s Idlib province to repel Syrian government troops.
Tents housing internally displaced people in Atma camp in Syria’s Idlib province, just over the border from Turkey.
Photo: umit bektas/ReutersLate Thursday, Mr. Erdogan chaired a meeting of top security officials to discuss the situation in Idlib, Syria’s last rebel-held enclave.
“The illegitimate regime that turned its guns toward our soldiers will be retaliated against,” Fahrettin Altun, Mr. Erdogan’s head of communications, said in a statement after the meeting.
The assault on Idlib, including shelling and relentless airstrikes, has forced nearly a million people to flee since December, creating the worst single displacement of people in nine years of crisis in Syria.
Turkey deployed troops in Idlib in late 2018 after reaching a cease-fire agreement with Russia, part of a fragile partnership between the two countries, both of which have deepened their involvement in the Syrian conflict in recent years.
The truce collapsed three months ago, when the army of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, backed by Russian jet fighters, resumed an offensive and reclaimed control of strategic towns and roads in Idlib.
At the beginning of February, Mr. Erdogan responded by dispatching an estimated 10,000 soldiers to the province in a bid to halt the regime’s territorial gains.
Any further Turkish military response could risk a confrontation with Russia, which has waged a military campaign since 2015 that has tilted the conflict in favor of the Syrian government.
The offensive has included frequent attacks on hospitals, schools, and other civilian targets, forcing huge numbers of Syrians to flee toward the Turkish border. They are barred from entering, trapping them in a war zone.
“Whether it’s health, education, food, he always targets the infrastructure first, then he can move forward in the area,” said Ahmad Rami Mokadam, a relief worker with the Syrian American Medical Association, a group providing aid to people inside Idlib, referring to Mr. Assad’s forces.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu spoke with North Atlantic Treaty Organization Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg via phone early Friday local time, Turkey’s state news agency Anadolu reported.
A Western official said Turkey requested a consultation on Article Four of NATO’s founding treaty, which calls for military consultation among members when one member state’s security is threatened. A meeting of the organization’s leadership is expected on Friday, the official said.
Write to Jared Malsin at jared.malsin@wsj.com
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