Syrian Kurds begin forces withdrawal from Turkey’s border
QAMISHLI: Kurdish forces in northeastern Syria have pullout their several positions along the vast border with Turkey.
Russian forces have started patrols along the flashpoint frontier, filling part of the vacuum left by a US troop withdrawal that effectively returned a third of the country to the Moscow-backed government of President Bashar al-Assad.
An AFP correspondent saw a Russian patrol set off from the town of Qamishli westwards along the Turkish border flying the country s flags, accompanied by Kurdish security forces.
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The Russian defence ministry said that the patrol covered more than 60 kilometres (37 miles) between Qamishli and the town of Amuda.
US President Donald Trump has praised the agreement reached in Sochi between NATO member Turkey and Russia.
He reveled that US personnel were leaving the long blood-stained sand of Syria, leaving just a residual contingent behind “where they have the oil.”
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The deal signed in the Black Sea resort by Syria’s two main foreign brokers gives Kurdish forces until Tuesday to withdraw to a line 30 kilometres from the border.
On Thursday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) had pulled out of some areas at the eastern end of the border.
The SDF withdrawal from that area came after Turkey and its Syrian proxies launched their deadly cross-border offensive on 9th October.
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is embattled on the domestic political front, hopes to use the pocket to resettle at least half of the 3.6 million Syrian refugees his country hosts.
Under the Sochi deal, the area will remain under the full control of Turkey, unlike the rest of the projected buffer zone which will eventually be jointly patrolled by Turkey and Russia.
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Some 300,000 people have fled their homes since the start of the Turkish offensive and many Kurds among them seem unlikely to return.
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