Russia deploys forces in Syria safe zones
Two checkpoints and 10 observation posts set up in southern safe zones
Russia has deployed military police to monitor two safe zones being established in Syria, the defence ministry in Moscow said yesterday.
Senior commander Sergei Rudskoi said Russian forces had set up checkpoints and observation posts around a zone in the south-west and in another one covering Eastern Ghouta, near Damascus.
The two areas are part of a broader Moscow-backed plan to create four “de-escalation zones” in rebel-held parts of Syria.
The announcement marks the first deployment of foreign troops to bolster the safe zones as Moscow seeks to pacify Syria after its military intervention swung the six-year conflict in favour of President Bashar Al Assad.
Rudskoi said Russian personnel on July 21 and 22 established two checkpoints and 10 observation posts along the boundaries dividing rebel forces and government troops in the southern zone.
Earlier this month, Russia, the United States and Jordan struck a deal to fix the boundaries of this zone and impose a ceasefire in the area.
Moscow has also informed Israel of its deployment and that the nearest Russian position is 13 kilometres from the demarcation line between Israeli and Syrian troops in the Golan Heights, Rudskoi said.
Under a second deal Moscow said it struck with “moderate” rebels over the weekend in Egypt, Russian forces yesterday set up two checkpoints and four observation posts in the area covering conflict-ravaged Eastern Ghouta, he added. The Syrian army on Saturday announced a halt in fighting for parts of Eastern Ghouta, a rebel-held region on the outskirts of the capital, but a London-based monitor said regime war planes still carried out raids.
Al Assad’s forces have surrounded the Eastern Ghouta region for more than four years, and regime forces have regularly targeted the area.
Russia has been providing air cover for Syrian President Bashar Al Assad’s offensive against the Daesh group since 2015 and deployed a military police force to patrol the city of Aleppo last year.
Russia, Iran, which supports Al Assad, and Turkey, which backs rebels fighting his forces, in May approved a plan to create four “de-escalation” zones in Syria.