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BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syrian rebel groups backed by Turkey have begun to withdraw their heavy weapons from a demilitarized zone agreed by Turkey and Russia in northwestern Syria on Saturday, the rebels said.
The rebel alliance of the National Liberation Front (NFL), backed by Turkey, said in a statement that the process of withdrawal of heavy weapons had begun, but that the fighters would remain on their positions in the demilitarized zone.
Under the agreement reached last month between Turkey and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the main Muscovite ally, the "radical" rebels will have to withdraw from the area by the middle of the month and heavy weapons must be removed by October 10th.
According to the NFL statement, Syrian rebels would remain in the demilitarized zone to help Turkish troops monitor and patrol the area.
Two Syrian rebel leaders backed by Turkey told Reuters that the removal of heavy weapons began Saturday and would last several days.
A rebel group commander told Reuters that the NFL will extract heavy weapons – such as rocket launchers and artillery vehicles – and bring it to 20 km from the line of contact between insurgents in Idlib province, controlled by rebels in Syria, and government forces.
"Small and medium weapons and heavy machine guns up to 57 mm will remain in place," the official said.
The agreement between Turkey and Russia put an end to the threat of an offensive by the Syrian government. The United Nations had warned that such an attack would create a humanitarian catastrophe in the Idlib region, where about three million people live.
Tahrir al-Sham, the leading jihadist group in the Idlib region, has not yet specified whether it would comply with the agreement.
(Report of Suleiman al-Khalidi in Amman, written by Lisa Barrington in Beirut, edited by Ros Russell, William Maclean)
