Turkey, Russia hold 9th joint patrol in Idlib

Turkish and Russian troops have carried out the ninth joint patrol along a key highway in northwestern Idlib province, Turkey’s National Defense Ministry said Thursday.

“Within the framework of TUR-RF Agreement/Protocol, the 9th TUR-RF Combined Land Patrol on M-4 Highway in Idlib was conducted with the participation of land and air elements,” the ministry said on Twitter.

The M4 highway, also known as the Aleppo-Al Hasakah road, is about 30 kilometers (19 miles) from Turkey's southern border.

The eighth joint patrol was conducted on Tuesday.

This March, Ankara and Moscow agreed on a protocol urging parties to “cease all military actions along the line of contact in the Idlib de-escalation area.”

The protocol said joint Turkish-Russian patrols would begin on March 15 along the M4 highway from the settlement of Trumba -- 2 km (1.2 miles) to the west of Saraqib -- to the settlement of Ain al-Havr.

Idlib province is home to 3.5 million civilians, third of them are displaced, according to the United Nations.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday that Turkey would no longer tolerate terrorist harassment in the Idlib safe zone in northwestern Syria or ramped-up attacks, which flout agreements.

Terrorist groups are trying to exploit Turkey's preoccupation with the coronavirus pandemic to step up attacks both within Turkey’s borders and beyond, Erdogan said in a televised address following a Cabinet meeting in Istanbul.

"This attitude alone is enough to show how far the terrorist group is from humanity," he said.

Erdogan said the Turkish Armed Forces are pursuing and neutralizing terrorists non-stop, adding that its operations across the border also continue without interruption.

Syrian Regime forces and allied militias have killed 2,125 people since April 2019 in northwestern Syria, according to the Syrian Response Coordinators group.

The death toll has included 597 children and 35 humanitarian workers. Also, the Russian-led offensive has also displaced 1,533,714 people.

Since the ceasefire agreed between Russia and Turkey in March, the lowest death toll ever was recorded in Syria in nine years with 270 people.

The nine-year-old conflict has killed more than 390,000 people and displaced 7 million.

(Zaman Al Wasl, AA)