AL EIS: Syrian rebels on Sunday said they expected to finish withdrawing heavy weapons from a planned buffer zone in northwestern Syria within days under a deal to stave off a regime attack. The National Liberation Front (NLF) announced that it has begun withdrawing heavy arms from the zone as part of an agreement between Russia and Turkey. The accord, reached on September 17, aims to stave off a massive regime assault on Idlib province, the last major rebel bastion in Syria, by creating a 15 to 20-kilometre buffer zone ringing the area.
Under the deal, all rebels in the demilitarised zone, which surrounds Idlib and also parts of the adjacent provinces of Aleppo and Hama, must withdraw heavy arms by Wednesday, and radical groups must leave by October 15. “We began to withdraw our heavy weapons from the demilitarised zone to rear positions,” NLF spokesman Naji Mustafa said. “The operation will last several days,” he said, adding that the weapons will be held by fighters deployed in positions outside the demilitarised zone. The NLF is the main rebel alliance in the Idlib region, but heavyweight Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS) holds a large part of the province and the zone.
HTS, led by former Al Qaeda fighters, has yet to announce its stance on the buffer zone deal. On Sunday, NLF fighters were seen on the frontline inside the planned buffer zone on the Idlib region’s eastern flank. They waited in trenches armed with light weapons on a hill in the area of Al Eis in the southwest of Aleppo province, overlooking regime-held territory several kilometres away. The correspondent did not see any heavy weapons in Al Eis. “According to the set deadline, the withdrawal of heavy weapons will end on October 10. The operation is ongoing,” an NLF commander on site said. “We are reinforcing our positions and are ready to face any violation” from the regime side, he added.
In recent weeks, Turkey has deployed troops at “observation posts” it set up in rebel-held areas of Idlib and neighbouring Aleppo. Nawar Oliver, an analyst from the Turkey-based Omran Centre for Strategic Studies, said pro-Ankara fighters giving up their heavy weapons on the front line leaves them vulnerable to a regime attack. But “the Turkish military should have some kind of heavy artillery” with them, he said. On Saturday, a media spokesman for Faylaq al Sham, one of the NLF factions, confirmed the withdrawal of arms. Seif Raad said it included pulling back missile launchers, tanks and mortars. — AFP
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