Turkey evacuates Syria outpost

AL NAYRAB, Syria — Turkey on Tuesday started withdrawing from one of its largest outposts in northwest Syria encircled for the past year by Syrian army, a war monitor and a pro-Ankara rebel commander said.

The outpost in Morek is Turkey's largest in the northwest province of Hama, which is now mostly under the Syrian army control.

The Syrian army encircled it last year following the launch of a regime offensive against the last major opposition bastion in Syria's northwest.

"After midnight Turkish forces began to evacuate Morek, and this morning a large convoy left" the area, an Ankara-backed Syrian rebel commander told AFP from Al Nayrab in neighbouring Idlib province.

The troops will be redeployed to Turkish outposts in Idlib, he said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported the pullout overnight.

The war monitor said that other observation posts also surrounded by regime forces could likewise be evacuated.

Turkey supports Syrian rebel forces battling the government forces and it has also launched multiple operations across Syria's northern border against Kurdish forces and the Daesh group.

Since September 2018, it has established 12 observation posts in the northwest. They were set up as part of a deal with Russia.

Ankara has not officially commented on the evacuation and it was unclear if it was part of a broader deal, possibly with Russia with which Turkey has also been at odds in Libya and the Karabakh conflict.

Idlib itself is dominated by the Al Qaeda-linked Hayat Tahrir Al Sham alliance and its rebel allies.

They control half of Idlib province as well as pockets of territory in the neighbouring provinces of Latakia and Aleppo as well as Hama.

A ceasefire since March has largely reduced fighting, despite intermittent air strikes and artillery attacks.