Syria

Syrian teacher Ahmad al Hilal listens to his young pupils sitting on a mat reciting the Arabic alphabet in a makeshift school in a tent on the outskirts of a sprawling refugee camp city along the Turkish border.

Around 350,000 Syrians, mostly women and children, have fled a renewed Russian-backed offensive in the opposition-held Idlib province since early December, and have sought shelter in border areas near Turkey, the United Nations said on Thursday.

Russian jets struck several rebel-held towns in northwest Syria's Idlib province for the first time since a ceasefire agreed with Turkey formally took effect two days ago, witnesses and insurgent sources said.

Turkey and Russia are discussing the establishment of a secure zone within Syria's northwestern Idlib region where Syrians displaced by fighting can shelter during the winter, Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar said on Wednesday.

The Syrian army said on Tuesday Israeli jets attacked the main T4 air base in Homs province, saying its air defences downed several missiles in strikes that caused only material damage.

Turkish and Syrian heads of intelligence met in Moscow on Monday, in the first official contact in years despite Ankara's long-standing hostility to President Bashar al-Assad, a senior Turkish official and Syrian news agency SANA said.

Russia and its allies halted air strikes in Syria's Idlib region on Sunday as a ceasefire agreed with Turkey came into force, residents, rebels and respondents said, although few were optimistic the truce would hold.

At least 17 people were killed and more than 40 injured on Saturday after Syrian army air strikes struck four cities in the country's northwestern region of Idlib, witnesses and a local civil defence centre said.

Omar al-Tawil, a 15-year-old school boy in Damascus, is one of 24,000 Syrian youngsters now learning Russian at school after the country added the language of the government's most powerful ally to the curriculum.