Date: Feb 8, 2019 Source: The Daily Star Russia tells Turkey: Do more to clear Daesh out of Idlib MOSCOW/BAGHDAD: Russia demanded Turkey do more to tackle militants in Syria’s Idlib province and fulfil promises it made as part of a deal with Moscow last year, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Thursday. Turkey and Russia, the Syrian government’s principal foreign ally, brokered a deal in September to create a demilitarized zone in the northwest Idlib region that would be evacuated of all heavy weapons and Islamist militants The deal helped avert a government assault on the area, the last major bastion of opponents of President Bashar Assad. Speaking at a news conference in Moscow, Zakharova said the situation there was rapidly deteriorating and that militant fighters were trying to seize control of the entire de-escalation zone. “Given the extremely difficult situation in the Idlib de-escalation zone, we expect our Turkish partners to activate their efforts to ultimately turn the tide and to fully carry out the obligations they took upon themselves,” Zakharova was quoted as saying by the Foreign Ministry. The comments came with Russian President Vladimir Putin due to meet the leaders of Turkey and Iran next week at a summit in the southern Russian city of Sochi where they are expected to discuss Syria. Separately, the Iraqi militia Popular Mobilization Forces said Thursday that they have launched dozens of missiles targeting Daesh (ISIS) militants holed up in a Syrian village across the border. The state-sanctioned PMF said they fired 50 missiles at targets in Baghouz village, in the last speck of territory held by the extremists. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported shelling from the Iraqi side but had no details on casualties. Iraq’s military has bombed Daesh posts inside Syria before, but the militias - many of which are backed by Iran - rarely engage in cross-border shelling. The militias’ social media account claimed to have shelled inside Syria last on Feb. 1. Some PMF factions are fighting inside Syria. Recent gains by Kurdish-led forces have shrunk Daesh’s “caliphate” to less than 1 percent of its original size, the U.S.-led coalition said Thursday.