300 Russian military police arrive in Syria for border patrols: Moscow

Some 300 Russian military police have arrived in Syria to patrol the flashpoint SyrianTurkish frontier, the defense ministry said on Friday.

The military police, who arrived from the Russian region of Chechnya, will work to ensure the safety of the population and help Kurdish forces withdraw to a line 30 kilometers from the border, Moscow said.

More than 20 armored vehicles were also sent to Syria to help carry out the tasks, the defense ministry said in a statement.

This week Russia and Turkey signed a deal that will see Russian military police and Syrian border guards “facilitate the removal” of Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) from within 30 kilometers of the border.

The Turkey-Russia agreement was reached after marathon talks between President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President Vladimir Putin in the Black Sea resort of Sochi on Tuesday.

Russian military police conducted the first patrols on Wednesday.

The deal follows the decision by US President Donald Trump to pull US troops who were allied with Kurdish forces that bore the brunt of the fight against the Islamic State group in Syria.

But on Thursday the US said it would beef up its military presence to protect northeastern Syria oil fields as Kurdish forces abandoned several positions.

“One of the most significant gains by the US and our partners in the fight against ISIS was gaining control of oil fields in Eastern Syria – a crucial source of revenue for ISIS,” a US defense official said in a statement.

“The US is committed to reinforcing our position, in coordination with our SDF partners, in northeast Syria with additional military assets to prevent those oil fields from falling back to into the hands of ISIS or other destabilizing actors,” the official said, on grounds of anonymity.