A contingent of foreign troops is moving towards the Hmeimim airbase, and some elements are returning to their country, in the context of the central government's advance on territories in northern and eastern Syria.
A Russian plane took off from an airport in northeastern Syria on Monday, as Russia is withdrawing forces from there, seeking to end its military presence in a corner of the country where the Damascus government is trying to seize control from Kurdish forces, five Syrian sources said.
Russia has stationed forces at Qamishli airport in the northeast since 2019, a relatively small deployment compared to its airbase and a naval facility on Syria's Mediterranean coast, which it is expected to maintain.
Government forces under President Bashar al-Assad have this month seized swathes of northern and eastern Syria from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, as Damascus aims to assert its authority over the entire country.
Two of the sources indicated that Russian forces had begun a gradual withdrawal from Qamishli airport last week. Some forces were expected to move to the Russian Hmeimim airbase in western Syria, while others would return to Russia, according to one of the sources.
Another Syrian security source on Syria's western coast said that Russian military vehicles and heavy weaponry had been transported from Qamishli to the Hmeimim military airport in the past two days.
The Russian Ministry of Defense did not immediately comment. The Russian newspaper Kommersant reported last week, citing an anonymous Syrian source, that the Syrian government might ask Russian forces to leave the base once it has driven out the Kurds because "there is nothing left for them to do there."
A Reuters journalist saw Russian flags still flying at Qamishli airport on Monday, where two planes with Russian markings were parked on the tarmac. Russia, a close ally of ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, has established ties with Sharaa since he came to power about 14 months ago.
Sharaa told Russian President Vladimir Putin last year that he would honor all previous agreements reached between Damascus and Moscow, a promise that suggests Moscow's two main military bases in Syria are secure.
The Capture of al-Aqtan
Syrian government forces took control of the al-Aqtan prison, located north of Raqqa, after hundreds of Kurdish fighters from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) who were guarding it withdrew, in accordance with a recent agreement between the two sides. According to a statement from the Interior Ministry, the government's prison authority is now managing the facility and reviewing the files of the inmates, who include members of the Islamic State (ISIS).
The al-Aqtan prison is the second that the government has taken over after the SDF abandoned the Shaddadeh prison, near the Iraqi border, where 120 ISIS members escaped during the chaos, although most have been recaptured, according to state media. These transfers are taking place within the framework of an agreement signed last March to integrate Kurdish fighters into the government forces, although negotiations have been interrupted several times by clashes, and only recently was a new pact reached that included a four-day ceasefire.
The capture of al-Aqtan was completed after a two-week siege by Damascus troops. The governor of Raqqa, Abdul-Rahman Salama, estimated that there are up to 2,000 inmates in the prison, although it was not specified how many are linked to the extremist group.
(With information from Reuters)
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