» Turkey halts incursion after deal with Russia,

Russian, Turkish troops to fill military vacuum after withdrawal by U.S.

AKCAKALE, TURKEY — The Turkish army halted its incursion into a Kurdish-run area of northern Syria on Wednesday morning, after a deal between the Turkish and Russian governments promised that Kurdish fighters would retreat from the Turkish-Syrian border.

What happened

The Turkish defense ministry said it would not advance beyond an area of roughly 900 square miles that Turkish-led forces have seized from Kurdish control since invading the area two weeks ago.

Why it matters

The announcement followed an agreement Tuesday night between President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, that significantly redrew the battle lines of the 8-year-old Syrian conflict.

The deal calls for Russian and Turkish troops to fill a military vacuum created by the sudden U.S. withdrawal from northern Syria this month, which left the Kurds, U.S. allies, exposed to the Turkish offensive.

It allows the Syrian government, backed by Moscow, to re-establish dominance over a swath that the Kurds have controlled.

By Wednesday afternoon, Syrian government forces had begun to deploy to parts of the region for the first time in a half-decade, Syrian state media reported. Russian troops were also filmed and photographed on the move in the same area.

The Kurdish authorities were not involved in the talks between Putin and Erdogan. In an earlier phase of the conflict they agreed to allow Russian and Syrian government troops inside their area of control, and on Tuesday completed a withdrawal from a central stretch of the border area, under the terms of an earlier U.S.-brokered cease-fire.

What’s next

Under the deal, Kurdish fighters must retreat more than 20 miles from the Turkish border by Monday night. Turkish troops will be allowed more than 6 miles inside Syria to conduct joint patrols with Russian forces along the length of the border region, and Turkey will also be allowed to maintain oversight of a deeper pocket of land it has seized.

UGUR CAN / DHA VIA AP Turkish soldiers (right) and Turkey-backed opposition fighters stand atop a building next to their flags in the Syrian town of Ras al Ayn in northeastern Syria on Wednesday.