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The Turkish-backed Nour al-Din al-Zenki Movement, the al-Sham Legion and the Thuwar al-Sham Brigades have begun withdrawing their heavy weapons from their positions in the outskirt of the northern city of Aleppo, the al-Mayadeen TV reported on October 21.
According to the Lebanese channel, the armed groups moved their heavy weapons from the al-Zahra district north of Aleppo to their positions around the towns of Kafr Sulin, Sheikh Suleiman and Atarib. The three towns are located outside of the demilitarized zone, which was established under the Russian-Turkish deconfliction agreement on the governorate of Idlib.
In the last few weeks, the militants around Aleppo, including Turkish-backed elements, violated the deconfliction agreement several times by shelling civilian areas within the city. On October 18, two civilians were killed as a result of a brutal rocket attack. Since then, the violations stopped.
Al-Mayadeen’s report confirms that the Turkish military lied when it claimed on October 10 that all heavy weapons had been withdrawn from the demilitarized zone. Despite of that, it appears that Turkey is now seriously working to force the militants to respect the agreement.
