MARAAT AL-NUMAN,Syria/BEIRUT (Reuters) - An assault on rebel-held northwest
Syria by government forces has pushed some 700,000 people to flee toward the
Turkish border and raised the specter of an international crisis, U.S. Special Envoy for Syria James Jeffrey said on Thursday.

Turkey fears a fresh wave of migrants piling across its border and has a dozen observation posts in Idlib, part of a de-escalation agreement it says
Russia is now violating.
Speaking at an online news briefing, Jeffrey said that in the last three days Syrian government and
Russian warplanes had hit Idlib with 200 air strikes "mainly against civilians", and that several Turkish observation posts had been "cut off" by the government advance.