Russian airstrike in Syria shows it does not want lasting peace, says Erdogan

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday accused Russia of not wanting "lasting peace" in Syria just two days after a Russian airstrike killed dozens of pro-Turkey rebels in Syria. On Monday, a Russian warplane hit a training centre for Turkish-backed fighters in northwestern Syrian province near Turkish border.

"Russia's attack on the training centre of the Syrian national army forces in the Idlib region shows it does not want lasting peace in the region," Erdogan said in a televised address.

Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the airstrike killed 78 fighters.

The pro-Ankara group, known as Faylaq al-Sham, retaliated by killing at least 15 Moscow-backed fighters, the monitor said.

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Faylaq al-Sham is a Sunni Islamist group that has acted as Turkey's proxy during several Turkish military campaigns on Syrian soil, and has also been the source of pro-Ankara mercenaries sent to fight in Libya.

A truce at the start of the year brought an end to a Russia-backed Syria regime offensive that had killed more than 500 civilians and displaced almost one million people.
It was one of the worst humanitarian crises of Syria's nine-year civil war.

The last major rebel stronghold covers around half of Idlib province as well as slivers of adjacent provinces.

(With AFP inputs)