OREANDA-NEWS. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at a press conference in Washington announced his support for Turkey and blamed Russia on the deaths of the Turkish military in Syria, the American news agency reported.

“We believe that Russia killed dozens of Turkish troops during a military operation in Syria. We support Turkey as our NATO ally and are making additional efforts to end the violence both in Idlib province and in the rest of Syria”, said the head of the US Foreign Ministry. Pompeo did not specify what events he had in mind. According to Reuters, so far the United States has not directly accused Moscow of involvement in the deaths of Turkish soldiers.

On February 27, it became known that more than 30 Turkish soldiers died as a result of a Syrian air strike on militants in the area of the Syrian city of Sarakib. Turkish President Recep Erdogan accused the government of Bashar al-Assad of what happened. In turn, in Moscow it was reported that Ankara had not warned the other parties about the presence of its soldiers in the area.

On March 5, the presidents of Russia and Turkey met in the Kremlin. Following the meeting, they agreed on a ceasefire in Syrian Idlib and joint Russian-Turkish patrols in territories that are still beyond Damascus control.