Turkey says will not withdraw from army posts in Syria's Idlib

Turkey will not withdraw from its observation posts in the Syrian rebel bastion province of Idlib which has seen an increase in violence carried out by regime forces supported by Russian airstrikes, the defence minister said.

The posts were established under a September 2018 deal between Syrian regime ally Moscow and Ankara, which backs the rebels, to avert an all-out Syrian government onslaught in Idlib.

President Bashar al-Assad's forces surrounded one of 12 Turkish observation posts in Idlib province on Monday after overrunning nearby areas in a push to take the last opposition holdout, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

"We respect the agreement reached with Russia and we expect Russia to abide by this agreement," Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar said in comments published on Sunday on the defence ministry's Twitter account.