Turkish and Russian Troops to Deploy in Idlib

Troops from Turkey and Russia will be deployed to security belts in the northern province of Idlib as part of a Moscow-backed de-escalation agreement brokered last month, Reuters reported on Thursday.

“We will probably be most prominent in the Idlib region with the Russians; mostly Russia and Iran around Damascus, and a mechanism involving the Americans and Jordan in the south in the Deraa region is being worked on,” said Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan’s spokesman Ibrahim Kalin, quoted by Turkish broadcasters.

Vladimir Shamanov, head of the Russian Duma defense committee, said that Moscow was also discussing proposals to send Kazakh and Kyrgyz troops to Syria. The Kazakh foreign ministry, however, denied in a statement on Friday that it is in talks to send peacekeeping troops to Syria, Reuters reported.

Meanwhile, the Syrian deputy foreign minister said the same day that his government will not allow its enemies to benefit from the creation of de-escalation zones in the west of the country, Reuters also reported.

Russia, Turkey and Iran last month agreed on implementing a so-called de-escalation agreement, which calls on warring parties to halt the use of all weapons and warplanes in four designated zones.

Under the proposal, peacekeeping troops will be deployed to “security belts” on the edges of the protected areas, where armed forces will man checkpoints and observation points to oversee its implementation and facilitate the movement of civilians.

Russian Warships Strike ISIS

Two Russian warships and a submarine based in the Mediterranean fired six cruise missiles at positions occupied by the so-called Islamic State in Syria, Moscow’s TASS news agency reported on Friday.

The strike destroyed an ISIS command post and ammunition depots near Akerbat in Hama province, TASS said, citing a Russian defense ministry statement.

The missile attack also killed a number of militants. Russian warplanes cleared the area of remaining ISIS fighters following the raid.

Moscow said it had notified Turkey and Israel, but there was no mention of Washington being informed of the incident, which took place only days after a de-escalation hotline between Russia and the United States was suspended.

The latest attack marks the second time in the past four weeks that Russia has used its naval fleet to target ISIS positions inside the war-torn country.

U.S. to Take Back Weapons from Syria’s Kurds

Ankara said it has been informed by Washington of a plan to take back weapons supplied to the YPG militia in northern Syria following the defeat of the Islamic State, Reuters reported.

The U.S. has supplied the YPG (the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units) –part of a Washington-backed alliance of Arab and Kurdish fighters battling ISIS in Raqqa – with a steady flow of weapons and artillery in recent months. This has dismayed Turkey, which has designated the YPG a terrorist group.

U.S. defense secretary Jim Mattis said in a letter to his Turkish counterpart Fikri Isik that a detailed record of all equipment provided to the YPG was being kept and that all the weapons would be taken back after ISIS was defeated, anonymous Turkish defense ministry sources told Reuters on Thursday.

Recommended Reads

• The New York Times: Fears Grow That U.S. Is Inching Toward Bigger Role in Syria War
• Newsweek: What’s Trump’s Syria Plan Once ISIS Is Defeated?
• Forbes: What’s Behind Moscow’s Latest Threats In Syria
• The Economist: Syria’s Multi-sided War Escalates yet Again
• Agence France-Presse: Solar Solution Brings Water to Besieged Syria Town