Turkey on Friday started joint patrols with Russia in northern Syria to verify whether Kurdish forces have withdrawn from a key border zone in compliance with a deal reached between Ankara and Moscow.
It follows an agreement that they signed in Sochi, Russia, last week, which gave Kurdish forces 150 hours to withdraw from a band of territory along Syria’s border with Turkey, in a process that Russia said has been completed.
The patrols add to the complicated mix of forces operating along the frontier, including US troops who on Thursday inspected an eastern section for the first time since US President Donald Trump last month said that the US was withdrawing.
Photo: AFP
The joint patrols began on Friday near the border district of Darbasiyah — from which Kurdish fighters have already pulled out — and lasted about four hours, a correspondent on the Turkish side of the border reported.
The soldiers had headed to the east of Darbasiyah in a convoy of Turkish and Russian military vehicles to patrol a strip of territory several dozen kilometers long, Turkish military sources said.
The Russian army said in a statement that the convoy consisted of nine vehicles, protected by an armored personnel carrier, covering more than 110km.
Turkey intends to set up a “safe zone” 30km deep, in which some of the 3.6 million Syrian refugees it is hosting could be resettled.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he would “consider the proposal,” stressing the need for the “voluntary, safe and dignified” return of refugees, during a visit on Friday to Istanbul, where he met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Last week’s Sochi agreement between Ankara and Moscow halted a Turkish operation launched on Oct. 9 against Kurdish forces in northeastern Syria, which left hundreds dead and prompted tens of thousands to flee their homes.
Under the deal, Turkey is to assume control over one 120km wide section in the center of the border, while Syrian government forces are to deploy to the east and west.
Along the whole length of the border, a 10km deep buffer zone is to be created on the Syrian side, which is to be jointly patroled by Russian and Turkish troops.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Thursday said that the Sochi agreement was “temporary,” and would eventually pave the way for his government to retake Syria’s northeast.
UN Special Envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen on Friday voiced hope over talks in Geneva between the Syrian government, opposition forces and civil society.
Pedersen said he was “very impressed” that the sides were meeting at all to discuss amending the country’s constitution ahead of possible elections as part of a UN peace plan.
Nearly 100km from the site of the joint patrols in Darbasiyah, a convoy of five US armored vehicles was seen patroling on Thursday in a zone north of the town of Qahtaniyah.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it was part of an eastern stretch of the border where US forces are seeking to maintain a presence.
“They want to prevent Russia and the regime from reaching parts of the border that lie east of the city of Qamishli,” the de facto capital of Syria’s Kurdish minority, Observatory head Rami Abdul Rahman said.
A spokesman for the US-led coalition said its forces are transiting on routes near the border as Washington “withdraws troops from northern Syria and repositions some troops to the Deir Ezzor region,” near the border with Iraq.
Washington has begun reinforcing positions in Deir Ezzor Province with extra military assets in coordination with Syrian Democratic Forces to prevent the Islamic State group and others from gaining access to oil fields in the area, a US Department of Defense official said.
Trump last month said that a “small number” of US troops would stay to “secure the oil.”
REVENGE: Trump said he had the support of the Syrian government for the strikes, which took place in response to an Islamic State attack on US soldiers last week The US launched large-scale airstrikes on more than 70 targets across Syria, the Pentagon said on Friday, fulfilling US President Donald Trump’s vow to strike back after the killing of two US soldiers. “This is not the beginning of a war — it is a declaration of vengeance,” US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth wrote on social media. “Today, we hunted and we killed our enemies. Lots of them. And we will continue.” The US Central Command said that fighter jets, attack helicopters and artillery targeted ISIS infrastructure and weapon sites. “All terrorists who are evil enough to attack Americans are hereby warned
‘POLITICAL LOYALTY’: The move breaks with decades of precedent among US administrations, which have tended to leave career ambassadors in their posts US President Donald Trump’s administration has ordered dozens of US ambassadors to step down, people familiar with the matter said, a precedent-breaking recall that would leave embassies abroad without US Senate-confirmed leadership. The envoys, career diplomats who were almost all named to their jobs under former US president Joe Biden, were told over the phone in the past few days they needed to depart in the next few weeks, the people said. They would not be fired, but finding new roles would be a challenge given that many are far along in their careers and opportunities for senior diplomats can
Seven wild Asiatic elephants were killed and a calf was injured when a high-speed passenger train collided with a herd crossing the tracks in India’s northeastern state of Assam early yesterday, local authorities said. The train driver spotted the herd of about 100 elephants and used the emergency brakes, but the train still hit some of the animals, Indian Railways spokesman Kapinjal Kishore Sharma told reporters. Five train coaches and the engine derailed following the impact, but there were no human casualties, Sharma said. Veterinarians carried out autopsies on the dead elephants, which were to be buried later in the day. The accident site
RUSHED: The US pushed for the October deal to be ready for a ceremony with Trump, but sometimes it takes time to create an agreement that can hold, a Thai official said Defense officials from Thailand and Cambodia are to meet tomorrow to discuss the possibility of resuming a ceasefire between the two countries, Thailand’s top diplomat said yesterday, as border fighting entered a third week. A ceasefire agreement in October was rushed to ensure it could be witnessed by US President Donald Trump and lacked sufficient details to ensure the deal to end the armed conflict would hold, Thai Minister of Foreign Affairs Sihasak Phuangketkeow said after an ASEAN foreign ministers’ meeting in Kuala Lumpur. The two countries agreed to hold talks using their General Border Committee, an established bilateral mechanism, with Thailand
RSS