The killing of 29 Turkish troops creating risk-off in early Asia
|Reuters reports twenty-nine Turkish soldiers have been killed in a Syrian government forces attack in Syria's Idlib.
The Turkish army suffered mass casualties in an airstrike, Turkish officials say, an attack that could dramatically shift the course of the Syrian war.
In the Guardian, it reports that he Turkish attempts to broker a ceasefire, and growing international calls for a halt to the violence, have so far been met with indifference from the Kremlin. "Erdoğan has vowed Ankara will not take the “smallest step back” in the standoff with Damascus and Moscow over Idlib, giving the regime until the end of the month to pull back."
However, Turkey has helped rebels to retake one town but had already lost 17 military personnel in the campaign before a strike on Thursday morning killed three, and the evening strike killed at least 22, marking the biggest single day of losses for the country’s forces.
US senator Lindsey Graham called on Thursday for the establishment of a no-fly zone over Idlib and called on Donald Trump to help stop the violence against civilians there.
“The world is sitting on its hands and watching the destruction of Idlib by Assad, Iran, and the Russians,” Graham, a Republican and an ally of Trump, said in a statement.
FX implications
The safe havens, such as CHF and Yen including gold will be underpinned on such geopolitical escalations in traditional risk-off fashion. Yen dropped 30 pips on the news but has recovered ahead of the data dump that starts with the Consumer Price Index at the top of the hour.
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