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| - Syrian regime forces Wednesday pushed on with their offensive in the country's northwest, securing areas along a key national highway they seized, as tensions spiralled with Turkey which supports rebel groups. After a series of tit-for-tat attacks, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened to strike Syrian regime forces "everywhere" if his soldiers are harmed and accused Damascus ally Russia of committing "massacres". The regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, which is also backed by Iranian forces, has made major inroads in the last opposition-held area in the northwest since December, sending 700,000 people fleeing their homes towards the closed Turkish border in harsh winter conditions. Heightening tensions, a regime helicopter was downed by rocket fire in Idlib province on Tuesday. Turkish media blamed the attack on rebels, while monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it was carried out by Turkey. Ankara has not claimed responsibility. The pro-government al-Watan newspaper on Wednesday said three air crew were killed in the attack. In their latest push, regime forces have seized a string of towns and villages from rebels and jihadists in the west of Aleppo province since Tuesday night, the Observatory and al-Watan reported. Hours after completely retaking the vital M5 highway linking the country's four largest cities, they cleared all areas directly west of the road in Aleppo province of rebels and jihadists. "Areas adjacent to the M5 from the west in Aleppo province are now under regime control," Observatory head Rami Abdul Rahman told AFP. The M5 links the capital Damascus to the second city of Aleppo, and has been a key target for the government as it seeks to rekindle a moribund economy. Its recapture will secure Aleppo, the country's former industrial hub, which still comes under sporadic rocket fire from holdout rebel groups. Syria's last major opposition pocket, which is home to three million people, is dominated by jihadists of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham alliance and their rebel allies. Government forces have pressed on with a blistering assault in the region since December, killing more than 380 civilians, the Observatory says. On Wednesday, Russian air strikes killed four civilians in the south of Aleppo province, it said. The monitor says it relies on flight patterns, as well as type of aircraft and ammunition involved, to determine who was behind an aerial bombing. State news agency SANA said a journalist and two photographers with pro-government outlets were wounded on the other side of the front line in the west of the province. Turkey has sent reinforcements to Syria in recent days following the series of exchanges with the Syrian army, the latest of which saw five Turkish troops killed by regime shelling in Idlib on Monday. An AFP correspondent in Idlib said a new convoy of Turkish armoured vehicles arrived Wednesday in the town of Binnish, northeast of Idlib city. ho/ah/fz
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