Most heavy arms removed from buffer zone: Monitor

beirut — Militants and Turkishbacked rebels in Syria’s last major opposition stronghold have withdrawn most of their heavy weapons from a planned buffer zone ahead of a Wednesday deadline, a monitor said.

The pullback is the first major test of a deal brokered by government ally Russia and rebel-backer Turkey last month to avoid what the United Nations warned would be the appalling humanitarian consequences of a major government offensive.

Under the agreement, all factions have until Wednesday to withdraw heavy weaponry from the 15- to 20-kilometre wide buffer zone, which rings Idlib province and adjacent areas of the northwest.

And by Monday, the buffer zone must be free of all militants, including those of the region’s dominant armed group, the Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS) alliance led by Al Qaeda’s former Syria branch.

Analysts had expected Ankara to have a difficult time enforcing the September 17 deal but by Tuesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the heavy weapons pullout was near complete.

“The buffer zone is now almost empty of any heavy weapons on the eve of the expiry of the deadline,” the Britain-based monitor’s chief, Rami Abdel Rahman, said.

HTS and smaller militant factions quietly began withdrawing their heavy arms on Saturday in an operation that continued through Monday night, the Observatory said. The pro-Ankara National Liberation Front said it had completed its weapons pullback on Monday. —