Syria Rebels Fight Back but Army Makes More Gains

Syrian rebels on Thursday re-entered a key northwestern town they lost earlier this month, reversing one of the main gains of the government's devastating offensive in Idlib province.

The counteroffensive could, however, be short-lived as Russian-backed Syrian troops continued to chip away at other parts of the rebel bastion, capturing 20 localities as Damascus ignored growing international appeals for a ceasefire.

Seven civilians, including three children, were killed in regime and Russian bombardment of Idlib, according to the Britain-based war monitor, adding to more than 400 civilian deaths since December.

The UN Security Council, where Moscow has systematically vetoed truce initiatives, was meeting again on Thursday amid growing concern Idlib was witnessing the nine-year-old war's worst humanitarian emergency yet.

Jihadists and Turkish-backed rebels re-entered Saraqeb, a key crossroads town in Idlib province they had lost earlier in February.

State news agency SANA acknowledged there were "fierce clashes" between the army and "terrorist groups on the Saraqeb front."

An AFP correspondent accompanied the rebels into Saraqeb, where he found a ghost town of bombed out buildings deserted of inhabitants.

The counterattack temporarily reverses one of the key gains notched up by the government since the launch of its offensive against the country's last rebel enclave in December.

- Turkish casualties -

The cash-strapped government had been keen to fully secure the M5, a highway which connects Syria's four main cities and passes through Saraqeb.

The Syrian Observatory said the air strikes were carried out by government ally Russia, which has come under heavy Western criticism for the high civilian death toll from its bombing campaign.

State media accused the "terrorists" of launching car bombings and other suicide attacks against government forces attempting to retake the town.

It said that the army had inflicted heavy losses on the attackers, despite the military support it said they had received from neighboring Turkey.

Some 950,0000 civilians have fled the government offensive, raising fears in Ankara of a new mass influx of refugees.

Turkey already hosts the world's largest number of Syrian refugees with around 3.6 million people, placing an increasingly unpopular burden on public services.

Three Turkish soldiers were killed in an air strike in Idlib, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday, taking the country's losses from regime fire in Syria this month to 20.

His defense ministry said Turkey immediately responded to the attack by hitting Syrian "regime targets." 

"We have three martyrs in Idlib, but the regime's losses are very high," Erdogan said during a speech in Ankara, without elaborating.

- U.N. powerlessness -

The Turkish president vowed Wednesday that Ankara would not take the "smallest step back" in the standoff with Damascus and Moscow over Idlib.

He warned the Syrian government to "stop its attacks as soon as possible" and to pull back by the end of the month.

Under a deal with Russia meant to bring calm to Idlib, Turkey has 12 observation posts in the region but several have come under fire from Assad's forces. 

In a briefing to the Security Council on Thursday, UNICEF's executive director Henrietta Fore  renewed an appeal for a ceasefire. 

"Millions of Syrian children are crying tonight -- from hunger and cold... from wounds and pain... from fear, loss and heartbreak," she said.

"We must stand with them" and their families. "We must tell them that we choose peace. History will judge us harshly -- and justly -- if we do not."

The United Nations has warned repeatedly that the fighting in Idlib has the potential to create the most serious humanitarian crisis since the start of the civil war in 2011.

"As the U.N. Security Council meets today, it is urgent for Council members to adopt a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Idlib," David Miliband, the chairman of the International Rescue Committee, said.

More than half a million of those displaced since December are children, tens of thousands of whom are sleeping rough in the harsh winter of northern Syria.

On Tuesday, several schools were hit by government artillery fire, prompting the jihadist-dominated administration in Idlib to temporarily close schools the following day.

Nine out of 15 members of the Security Council on Wednesday urged Secretary General Antonio Guterres to step up his involvement in efforts to restore peace in Idlib. 

Russian vetoes, often backed by China, have chronically crippled UN action in Syria.

In southern Syria on Thursday, a Syrian linked to the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah was killed in a cross-border Israeli drone strike that targeted his car in a village near the annexed Golan Heights, the Observatory said.