Turkey says 15000 Syrians are at its border

The assault in northern Aleppo province, backed by hundreds of Russian air strikes there, has also prompted tens of thousands of people to flee towards the Turkish border and helped derail peace talks in Geneva.

Video footage showed thousands of people, mostly women, children and the elderly, massing at the Bab al-Salam border crossing.

The border remains closed and it is not clear if any of the refugees would be admitted to Turkey.

Reporters at the border said it looked as though the Turkish authorities were trying to press the Syrians back from the border rather than readying to invade Syria.

Turkish aid officials said Syrians who has massed at the border were being directed toward a displaced peoples’ camp near the border crossing. The United Nations said up to 10,000 people had been displaced to Azaz from areas under attack north of Aleppo and that 10,000 had been displaced to Afrin, where there are plans to expand an existing camp for internally displaced persons.

The Latest on the fighting in Syria, where government forces are waging a massive offensive around the northern city of Aleppo, once the country’s largest.

As many as 70,000 Syrians have fled Aleppo amid a government offensive to retake parts of the city controlled by rebels.

Iran, a longtime ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad, acknowledges that Iranian officers are providing an advisory role in Syria, but denies sending combat troops.

On Friday, clashes between the two sides in and around Ratyan, a town near Aleppo, killed 120 people, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the government was keeping “this open border policy for these people fleeing from the aggression of the regime as well as air strikes of Russian Federation”.

 The advances in Aleppo have led to the breaking of a rebel siege on the towns of Nubul and Zahraa, which “will give government forces and Hezbollah in northern Syria a significant morale boost”, Columb Strack, a senior risk analyst at IHS Jane’s said.

Turkey has been providing food, shelter and blankets to thousands of civilians who are stranded on the Syrian side of the border.

Government forces concentrated in Damascus and the centre and west of Syria are fighting the jihadists of Islamic State and al-Nusra Front, as well as less numerous so-called “moderate” rebel groups, which are strongest in the north and east. These groups are also battling each other.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said its warplanes hit 875 targets in Syria this week, including in the area of the government offensive around Aleppo.

Earlier today, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Russian Federation has recently implemented a heavy substantial military build-up in Syria with air forces, ground forces and an increased naval presence in the eastern part of the Mediterranean.

Samantha Power, the US ambassador to the United Nations, said Friday that at least 150 civilians, including three Syrian Red Crescent aid workers, have been killed in the recent Russian airstrikes.

On Thursday Russia accused Turkey, key backer of Syria’s opposition, of preparing a ground invasion, an accusation Mr Erdogan called “laughable”. Under its agreement with the EU, Ankara is requiring Syrians to have a visa to enter Turkey, a reversal of the open door initiative that has made it the largest recipient of Syrian refugees.

In New York, the UN Security Council met for closed-door consultations with envoy Staffan de Mistura, who has suspended the floundering Geneva negotiations until February 25.