The Latest: Turkey says Syrian troops violate cease-fire

FILE - This Aug 20, 2018 photo, provided by the al-Qaida-affiliated Ibaa News Network, shows fighters of the al-Qaida-linked coalition known as Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, training in Idlib province, Syria. After eight months of relative calm, Idlib is once again a theater for bloody military operations as Syrian government troops, backed by Russia, push their way into the rebel-held enclave in a widening offensive. The violence in May 2019 threatens to completely unravel a crumbling cease-fire agreement reached between Turkey and Russia last September. (Ibaa News Network, via AP, File)

This frame grab from video provided by the activist-operated Thiqa News Agency, shows residents displaced from the latest violence that hit the last rebel stronghold, taking refuge in olives orchids near the town of al-Atmeh, in northern Idlib, Syria, Thursday, May 9, 2019. Syrian government troops captured the village of Qalaat al-Madiq, a northwestern village known for its medieval fortress, on Thursday as they move deeper toward Idlib province, the last major rebel stronghold, activists and pro-government media said. (Thiqa News Agency via AP)

BEIRUT – The Latest on the Syrian civil war (all times local):

6:55 p.m.

Turkey's Defense Minister Hulusi Akar is accusing the Syrian government of trying to expand its field of control in Idlib province in violation of a Russian-Turkish cease-fire brokered last September.

Akar called on Friday for the government attacks to be halted. He made the comments during a visit to Turkey's border with Syria where he inspected troops, together with the country's top military commanders.

Rebel groups are battling Syrian government forces to regain territory they lost in the northwest area of Idlib earlier this week.

The latest wave of fighting is the most serious challenge to the cease-fire.

Akar said, "the Syrian regime must end attacks south of Idlib and withdraw to the boundaries delineated under the Astana Process," in reference to the Turkish-Russian cease-fire agreement

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12:50 p.m.

Syrian activists and state media say rebel groups are fighting back, trying to retake territory lost to government forces this week in their stronghold in the country's northwest.

Syria state al-Ikhbariya TV says troops foiled insurgent attacks on Friday on Kfar Nabudah village, taken three days earlier as government forces pushed into the southern edge of the rebel enclave.

But the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the insurgents, led by al-Qaida-linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, advanced into the village, sparking intense clashes and a wave of government airstrikes.

The latest wave of fighting began on April 30. It's the most serious challenge to a cease-fire brokered by Russia and Turkey last September and has set off a wave of displacement inside the rebel stronghold, home to 3 million people.