As Turkey pounds the Syrian army, Russia wants to talk

THE SYRIAN army is still better at stealing refrigerators than at fighting rebels. But after a decade of war it at last looked to be learning better tactics. Instead of sending lone tanks to bounce through the hills, some units fighting in Idlib, the last opposition-held province, have worked together, with columns of armour backed by infantry. In recent days, though, grainy black-and-white footage has shown those tanks being pulverised from overhead, their crews helpless to fight back.

Long accustomed to squaring off with ill-equipped rebels, Bashar al-Assad’s men are unexpectedly battling the second-largest army in NATO. The clash began on February 27th when an air strike on a Turkish convoy killed at least 36 soldiers, the deadliest attack on Turkish troops in more than two decades. It is still unclear whether Syrian or Russian jets dropped the bombs. But Turkey has chosen to respond to Syria with a barrage of drone strikes and artillery that have dealt Mr Assad’s regime its worst blow in years. It has also brought Turkey to the brink of conflict with Russia, Mr Assad’s biggest foreign backer.