MESOPOTAMIA NEWS Syria Daily: Kurdish-Led Force Agrees to Russian Deployment in Northeast

Posted by Scott Lucas | Dec 2, 2019 | EAWORLDVIEW

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces have agreed to a deployment of Russian troops to two mainly-Kurdish towns south of the Turkish-Syrian border, both reinforcing Turkish-Russian military oversight of northeast Syria and raising questions about it.

The SDF said Sunday that an accord was reached on Russia’s presence in the towns of Ain Issa and Tel Tamr, where fighting has continued with Turkish-allied anti-Assad fighters despite the Turkish-Russian declaration of oversight. The SDF added that Russian troops will also go to the border town of Amuda.

Sunday’s announcement followed Russian-Kurdish meetings which had irritated Ankara.

“We were honored to host the commander of Russian forces working in Syria, Lt. Gen. Alexander Chaiko. It was a very fruitful meeting, and we agreed to deploy Russian forces in Amuda, Tel Tamr, and Ain Issa for security and stability of the area,” SDF commander Mazloum Abdi tweeted in Arabic and Russia on Sunday.

“We look forward to more joint efforts for the interest of both of our countries,” he added.

The meetings and announcement appeared to ease recent sniping between the two sides. Russia said the SDF was not adhering to Moscow’s deal with Turkey; the SDF alleged that Russia was failing to guarantee the agreement by allowing attacks by the Turkish-allied anti-Assad factions.