U.S. President Donald Trump suggested on Wednesday he had never heard of the rebel-held Syrian region of Idlib under threat from Syrian government and Russian forces until a supporter brought it up at a recent rally about a month ago.
The United Nations says close to 3 million people live in the area, which also has thousands of Islamist fighters, and warned of a humanitarian catastrophe in the event of an offensive by government-backed forces that has been in the pipeline for several months.
A Russian-Turkish agreement last week staved off a threatened government attack by agreeing on the creation of a demilitarized zone between insurgent and government forces in the northwest.