ANKARA, February 20. /TASS/. The Syrian air force has carried out strikes on the Turkish army’s positions in the Idlib province, killing two troops, Turkish Presidential Spokesman Fahrettin Altun said on Twitter on Wednesday.

"Our troops deployed to Idlib to ensure peace and carry out humanitarian activities came under the [Assad] regime’s attack, which killed two troops and left another five wounded," the tweet reads.

The Turkish Defense Ministry earlier issued a statement about an airstrike on the Turkish positions. At the same time, the ministry reported that "over 50 [Syrian] regime soldiers were killed, five tanks, two armored vehicles, a self-propelled artillery gun and two military pickups were destroyed."

Turkey’s Anadolu news agency informed earlier on Thursday that the so-called armed Syrian opposition had launched an operation against government forces in the Idlib province. According to the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA), Syrian troops managed to thwart the opposition’s attacks.