Militants complete withdrawal of heavy weapons from Idlib buffer zone

Foreign-sponsored militants have completed the withdrawal of heavy weapons from a planned buffer zone in Syria’s northwestern province of Idlib, conforming to a deal brokered by Russia and Turkey that has so far held off a government offensive on the last major terrorist stronghold in Syria.

Turkey’s official Anadolu news agency reported that Turkish-backed gunmen affiliated with the so-called Free Syrian Army (FSA) and members of other militant outfits pulled all their heavy military hardware, including rocket launchers, mortars and medium-range missiles, from the frontline in Idlib on Monday.

The report came only hours after Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin told Sputnik news agency in an interview that Moscow and Ankara had determined the borders of the demilitarized zone in Idlib.

“Very good contacts, cooperation, ties have been established between the military of Turkey and Russia. They have already met more than once after signing the document,” Vershinin said.

Naci Mustafa, a spokesman for the National Front for the Liberation of Syria affiliated with the FSA, said on Sunday that militant groups had begun removing heavy weapons from the frontline in Idlib in a bid for a 15 to 20-kilometer (9-12 mile) demilitarized zone to be set up.

Mustafa said the light weapons would remain and that his comrades would continue digging ditches as a measure against Syrian army advances.

Under a deal reached following a meeting between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi on September 17, all militants in the demilitarized zone, which surrounds Idlib and also parts of the adjacent provinces of Aleppo and Hama, must pull out heavy arms by Wednesday, and Takfiri groups must withdraw by October 15.

The NLF is the main Turkish-backed militant alliance in the Idlib region, but the Takfiri Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) terrorist group, which is a coalition of different factions of terror outfits, largely composed of the Jabhat Fateh al-Sham Takfiri terrorist group formerly known as al-Nusra Front, holds a large part of the province and the zone.

HTS, which is said to be in control of some 60 percent of Idlib province, has yet to announce its stance on the buffer zone deal..

SS