SARAQIB (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 06th March, 2020) The current situation in the Syrian northwestern city of Saraqib, located in the heart of the embattled Idlib province, is relatively calm, as the warring sides seem to be observing a new ceasefire brokered by the Russian and Turkish presidents on Thursday, a military source told Sputnik.�
After six-hour-long talks in Moscow on Thursday, Presidents Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed on the ceasefire in Idlib, which went into effect at midnight.
"The situation on the ground is calm. There was no fighting at night. The Syrian army is fully observing the ceasefire," the source said.
This is not the first time the two countries have come together to try and quell the situation in Idilb. In September 2018, Putin and Erdogan held talks in Sochi devoted specifically to establishing a demilitarized buffer zone in the province that would be free from the presence radical militants and any heavy weaponry they operated.
However, since then Russia has repeatedly insisted that Turkey has failed to implement its commitments under the Sochi deal, particularly with regard to distinguishing between members of the armed opposition, who are ready to engage in peace talks with the government, and jihadists.
In late February, however, the situation in Idlib worsened after the Tahrir al-Sham terror group (formerly Nusra Front, outlawed in Russia) launched a large-scale attack on the positions of the Syrian government forces. Syrian troops responded with airstrikes, hitting Turkish troops deployed next to terrorists. As a result, 36 Turkish servicemen were killed, more than 30 were injured.
