The Turkish Armed Forces on Sunday shelled targets of extremist group in Syria's Idlib, a day after Ankara announced the start of a military operation there, private broadcaster NTV has reported.
The broadcaster quoted military sources, saying that Turkish howitzers on the border fired around five shots in support of allied Free Syrian Army (FSA) fighters who had entered Idlib, which is largely controlled by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a former al-Qaida affiliate that changed its name last year from the Nusra Front.
According to Dogan News Agency, the intermittent artillery fires were shot from Reyhanli, a town in Turkey's southern Hatay province and near the Syria-Turkish border.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday announced that a "serious operation" had begun in Idlib, but also said it was currently carried out by the FSA, and Turkish soldiers haven't entered there on the ground yet.
The Turkish army was backing the FSA from within Turkey's borders, while Russian forces were providing air support to the operation, he said.
Erdogan said last month that Turkey would deploy troops in Syria's northwest Idlib province as part of a so-called de-escalation agreement brokered by Russia in August.

source: xinhua