WASHINGTON 

U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio backed Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday amid an ongoing offensive in Syria’s Idlib province.    

Turkish troops have come under attack in recent weeks by Bashar al-Assad’s forces in the province, the scene of an offensive by regime forces backed by Russia.

Re-upping my post from yesterday because today #Turkey suffered mass casualties after an air strike in #Syria.

A @NATO partner is on the verge of armed hostilities with #Russia. https://t.co/jHMIEEGjs7 https://t.co/crMCsGJl9H

— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) February 27, 2020

On Twitter, Rubio, a Florida Republican, said the “prospects of a direct military confrontation between Turkey and Russia in Syria are very high & increasing by the hour.” 

“Erdogan is on the right side here,” he wrote, referring to the deadlock where hundreds of Syrians are on the brink of being killed or displaced.  

He said Russian President Vladimir Putin and Assad are responsible for the “horrific humanitarian catastrophe” in Idlib. 

According to UN officials, some 900,000 people have been displaced by the offensive since December.  

In the latest attack, a total of 29 Turkish troops were martyred by an airstrike in Idlib, and Turkey has vowed to retaliate against the “illegitimate” Syrian regime, said the country’s Communications Director Fahrettin Altun.