The situation in the Idlib de-escalation zone seriously worsened Feb. 10. Following last week's large-scale Turkish military deployment in the region to prevent the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from further advancing, a new attack by the Syrian army led to the death of five more Turkish troops. In retaliation, the Turkish Ministry of Defense reported it had hit 115 Syrian targets and “neutralized” 101 Syrian military personnel.
The Russian delegation returned to Turkey on Monday morning after the first meeting between Russian and Turkish negotiators in Ankara on Saturday bore no fruit. A source in the Syrian opposition who spoke with Al-Monitor not for attribution said the meeting also ended in deadlock.