Turkey, Russia hold sixth joint patrol in Idlib

ANKARA

Turkish and Russian forces carried out their sixth joint patrol along a key highway in northwestern Syria on April 28.

“Within the framework of TUR-RF Agreement/Protocol, the 6th TUR-RF Combined Land Patrol on M-4 Highway in Idlib was conducted with the participation of land and air elements,” Turkey’s Defense Ministry said in a tweet.

Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu also had a phone conversation with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov.

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

On March 5, 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” starting on March 6.

Joint Turkish-Russian patrols agreed in the deal also began on March 15 along the M4 highway from the settlement of Trumba — two kilometers (1.2 miles) to the west of Saraqib — to the settlement of Ain al-Havr.

Idlib has long been under siege by Assad regime forces and its allies, and previous cease-fires for the region were repeatedly violated.