Turkey vows not to quit army post in Syria amid Assad advances

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Friday that his country's troops will not quit a military observation post in northwestern Syria where they are surrounded by government forces.

"We are there, not because we can't leave but because we don't want to leave," he told a news conference in Lebanon, denying that Turkish troops had been "cut off" by the brutal Assad regime advance into Idlib.

Earlier, Syrian regime forces overran a string of towns and villages in the north of Hama province, including the town of Morek, where the Turkish observation post is located, Syria's state news agency SANA said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that "regime forces have surrounded the Turkish observation post in Morek" after the advance. 

Cavusoglu acknowledged that "there are clashes in the Idlib region". 

"Regime forces are conducting activities around our observation post," he said , adding that the issue was being discussed with Damascus allies Russia and Iran.

But "our observation point there is not cut-off and nobody can isolate our forces and our soldiers," he added.

Rebel-backer Turkey has carried out two cross-border offensives into Syria, where its forces have been deployed for nearly two years. 

The observation post in Morek is one of 12 the Turkish army set up along the front line between government forces and rebels, along with militants, last year.

The troops' mission was to oversee the establishment of a buffer zone agreed by Ankara and Moscow in September.

But the jihadists failed to pull back from the zone as agreed and in April, government and Russian forces resumed intense bombardment of the region.

"The regime's forces have deployed in Morek and throughout the northern part of Hama province, without attacking the observation post," Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP. 

"For the (Turkish) soldiers there is no way out" except through territories now held by the regime and its Russian ally, according to the Observatory.

The Idlib region, which sits on the Turkish border, is the last major stronghold of opposition to the Russia-backed Syrian government.

It has been under government assault since late April. 

Around 900 civilians have been killed, according to the Observatory.

More than 400,000 people have been displaced, says the United Nations. 

The war in Syria has killed more than 370,000 people since it started with the brutal suppression of anti-government protests in 2011.