Ankara, Feb 12 (TIWN) The Russian and Turkish presidents had a phone conversation and discussed the escalation in Idlib in northwestern Syria, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday.

De-escalation talks between representatives of Russia and Turkey have failed to yield any agreement after 13 soldiers were killed over the course of the past week as Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces continued their efforts to take the strategic M5 highway to Aleppo from rebels for the first time since 2012. By late Tuesday, it remained unclear as to whether the Syrian government's efforts were successful.