"On March 15, the Russian Military Police and Turkish forces conducted first joint patrol in southern Idlib. According to agreements reached in Moscow, the patrol was set to be conducted along the part of the M4 highway, where a buffer zone had to be establsihed. This included the withdrawal of heavy weapons and radical armed groups (al-Qaeda & friends) from the area. However, this did not happen. Furthermore, the countryside of Jisr al-Shughur remains the stronghold of the al-Qaeda-linked Turkistan Islamic Party.
So, Ankara and Moscow decided to conduct a limited patrol west of Saraqib to avoid an expected escalation and attacks on the patrol. Even this effort did not go without difficulties. Turkish forces failed to reopen the M4 highway (blocked by militant supporters) and the patrol took place only in a few km west of the government-controlled town of Sraqib (on the crossroad of the M5 and M4 highways." SF
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Per the cease fire agreement between the Russians and Turks, the jihadis are supposed to withdraw their force from the area south of the M-4 that they still hold and from the entire de-militarized buffer zone on both sides of the road. They evidently haven't done any of that and the SAA is refitting its units and preparing to resume the offensive against them. This "ceasefire" was never going to be more than an operational pause from the POV of the SAA and their friends like the Quds Brigade (Palestinians).
the Turks having been doing their best to make the cease-fire line into a permanent border but this concept is clearly falling apart when faced by jihadi intransigence.
The extent to which the nasty little US neocons are involved in Idlib is unclear to me. pl
Some here may have worn this insignia on their uniform, but I find it interesting to see this ancient area denial weapon actually deployed on the M4.
https://twitter.com/200_zoka/status/1239257118726709248
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caltrop
Posted by: Barbara Ann | 15 March 2020 at 05:41 PM
Well atleast faced with the question is Jolani Erdoguan's bitch or is Erdoguan Jolani's bitch we now have an answer and it doesn't look good for Erdoguan.
Posted by: BraveNewWorld | 17 March 2020 at 07:33 PM