As you can see, it's about five km from the Turkish border. Speaking of buffer zones, Turkey was expecting to make this city an absolute springboard, out of reach of Syrian army strikes. It did not happen. But until today, due to the remoteness of the Syrian army from it, as well as a number of geopolitical reasons, attacks were not mounted on this city.
But today the Russian air force eliminated an entire column of trucks loaded with supplies intended for the militants, there since yesterday. In any other comparable situation, the Turkish government and Erdogan in person, would have complained of Russia bombing trucks laden with Humanitarian Aid, but now, they can't afford to.
Thus Russia continues wiping out all objectives near the Turkish border, utterly ignoring the interests of Turkey (previously observed). It can now be affirmed that Turkey no longer is getting cheap oil, the militants can't get normal supplies, and border crossings by Turkish vehicles will be stopped by strikes from the Russian Air Force.
Since yesterday, Russia has been mounting massive air and artillery strikes (with the Syrian army) in the border areas with Turkey. And it means the destruction of the supply infrastructure, which was established by Turkey in these years of the war in Syria.
http://fortruss.blogspot.com/2015/11/russia-destroys-turkish-truck-convoy.html
A no go zone, as enforced by the Russians, makes a hell of a lot more sense than the no-fly zone floated around in the US by chicken hawks like McCain, Graham, and Rubio.
Putin ain’t puttin up with no Ho Chi Minh trail kinda $hit!