Suicide bombers attack Syrian army post, 10 dead

The attack is said to have taken place in an area that is supposed to be demilitarized, under the terms of a Russian-Turkish agreement.

By World Israel News

Suicide bombers who were disguised as farmers attacked a military position in western Syria on Tuesday in an attack that killed three victims and all of the bombers, according to state-run media cited by the Reuters news agency.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said that 10 people were killed. The attack was said to have been carried out by a jihadist group in a “demilitarized” zone set up under the terms of an agreement reached in September between Turkey and Russia.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Turkey borders Syria and Russia and has played an influential role in overseeing the chaotic situation in war-torn Syria. The agreement between the two countries was viewed as a Russian effort to ensure quiet in northwestern Syria, the last major foothold of the insurgency against President Bashar al-Assad.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin is Assad’s strongest ally.

Jihadist groups that hold sway in the Idlib region have further tightened their grip in recent months, and Russia remains intent on helping Assad take back the territory, reports Reuters.

Putin discussed the Syrian quagmire with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan in Moscow on Monday and they agreed to conduct joint patrols in the area, where Turkey has also deployed forces in rebel-held areas, according to the news agency.

Last week, Syria reportedly said that Russia had started to feel that its patience was running out over the northwest, but that Moscow had told Damascus that Turkey was still determined to implement the agreement.

The United Nations says that the areas in question are sheltering some 3 million people, half of whom have been uprooted from other parts of Syria by war within the country.