Russian forces seen withdrawing towards northern Syrian city of Tartus

(16 Dec 2024)
RESTRICTIONS SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Latakia, en route to Tartus navy base - 16 December 2024
1. Various of military vehicles heading towards Tartus navy base

Hmeimim airbase - 16 December 2024
2. Various of military cargo planes at Hmeimim airbase
3. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Mohammed Abu Staif, Syrian rebel:
“We are here at Hmeimim airbase trying to save the properties of the state and the people. Thank god our situation is very good now. We opened a settlement office (for Assad’s government soldiers) for those who would like to settle their status and put their hands with us so that all the people in Syria will be united."
4. Plane on tarmac
5. Plane taking off
6. Various of armoured personnel carriers and trucks leaving the base
STORYLINE:
A lengthy convoy of Russian military vehicles were seen withdrawing from Latakia toward the Syrian city of Tartus on Monday, as soldiers stood guard.

Planes periodically landed and took off from Russia’s Hmeimim air base in the Syrian coastal province of Latakia.

In the streets of Hmeimim, a bucolic town dotted with orange groves, many of the shops bear signs in Russian, a nod to the significance of the Russian military presence in the area.

But whether and how long that presence will last after the fall of former Syrian President Bashar Assad is now an open question.

Russia’s scorched-earth intervention on behalf of its ally, Assad, once turned the tide of the Syrian civil war.

In 2017, Assad’s government signed a deal with Russia that offered it a free lease of both Hmeimim air base and the Tartus naval base for 49 years.

But opposition forces in the country’s northwest launched a shock offensive last month that once again threatened Assad’s rule, Moscow largely stood aside - although it has granted asylum to the former president and his family.

Russian forces have pulled out of some areas of Syria. Russian forces and military vehicles were seen withdrawing from southern Syria on Friday toward their primary base in in the coastal city of Latakia.

AP video by Ghaith Al-Sayed

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