ANKARA, Dec. 12 (Xinhua) — Turkish and Russian troops on Thursday held the 15th round of joint ground patrols in northern Syria, the Turkish Defense Ministry said in a written statement.
“Turkish and Russian units have completed their 15th joint land patrol, covering the Ras al-Ayn sector as planned, with a contribution of four vehicles each, covering an area of 48 km in length and six km in depth,” said the ministry.
On Oct. 9, Turkey launched a military incursion, named Operation Peace Spring, into northern Syria in a bid to drive Kurdish fighters out of the border region, following the pullout of U.S. troops.
On Oct. 22, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin held a meeting in Sochi, Russia, agreeing on the parameters for a region in the west and east of the borders in northern Syria.
The deal demands the fighters of the People’s Protection Units, which Ankara sees as the Syrian offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party in Turkey, pull back 30 km south of Turkey’s border within 150 hours before Turkish and Russian soldiers start joint patrols 10 km from the Turkish border in an agreed region that excludes the city of Qamishli.