By Theodore Shoebat
Russian and Turkish soldiers are now patrolling northern Syria side by side, as we read from Al Jazeera:
Turkish and Russian troops began their first joint ground patrols in northeast Syria on Friday under a deal between the two countries that forced Kurdish fighters to evacuate from a so-called “safe zone” on the Syrian side of the border.
Turkey and allied Syrian rebels launched a cross-border offensive on October 9 against the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), dubbed “terrorists” by Turkey, seizing control of 120km-long (75 miles) and 30km-deep (19 miles) strip of land along the frontier.
Russia has told Turkey that the YPG left the strip on Wednesday, a week after Ankara and Moscow agreed to remove the YPG fighters from the area.
Turkish armoured vehicles on Friday drove through country roads across the border to join their Russian counterparts, according to Reuters television footage filmed from the Turkish side of the border.
Ground and air units were involved in the patrol in the area of the Syrian border town of Darbasiya, the Turkish Defence Ministry said on Twitter, showing photographs of four armoured vehicles and soldiers studying a map.
The 110-km joint patrol with Russian military police, consisting of nine military vehicles, starts at Darbasiya and travels west along the border, the Russian defence ministry said.
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