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As Idlib burns, Turkey focuses on another corner of Syria

Last year, Turkey helped stave off an attack on Syria’s last rebel stronghold of Idlib, but the truce may be crumbling as regime and Russian bombardments kill dozens.
A motorbike burns after an airstrike in this screen grab taken from a social media video said to be taken in Idlib, Syria on July 16, 2019. Picture taken July 16, 2019. White Helmets/social media via REUTERS THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. - RC1FFC6630A0

ISTANBUL — Dozens of people were killed in airstrikes in the Syrian province of Idlib this week in what the United Nations called a “worsening nightmare,” as a truce negotiated between Russia and Turkey for the last rebel stronghold threatens to shatter.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan won a reprieve from a Russian-backed Syrian government onslaught on the northwestern province in September 2018. Now his focus appears to have shifted to the other side of Syria amid a Turkish troop buildup that portends an incursion east of the Euphrates River against a Kurdish militia Ankara deems a terrorist group.

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