ALEPPO /Syria/, December 3. /TASS/. Commander of the Military Police Battalion of the Syrian Armed Forces Khalid Muhammad revealed to journalists that the Joint Russian-Syrian military police drills held in the Aleppo Province near the Idlib de-escalation zone were the first-ever bilateral exercises of its kind.

"Today, the military police of the Russian-Syrian Armed Forces are conducting joint drills. Exercises are being held at a proving ground where conditions are as close as possible to genuine combat action. We feel more confident when our Russian colleagues are here. These joint drills help us establish [our] cooperation, develop coherence in the use of weapons, tactics and joint tasks in the field," the commander of the military police battalion said.

Supported by the Russians, Syrian military police consistently quashed a hypothetical enemy’s firing positions. In the simulated combat, the military of both countries communicated by gestures to minimize the language barrier. According to the drills’ results, all tasks have been completed. A decision was made to conduct such exercises on a regular basis.

A de-escalation zone was created in northwestern Syria in 2017 for insurgents who had refused to lay down arms after the government army’s operations in Eastern Ghouta near Damascus and in the country’s southern regions. A ceasefire has been in effect there since March 6, 2020, following the agreements reached between Russia and Turkey. Pro-Turkish opposition groups and Jabhat al-Nusra (outlawed in Russia) terrorists have systematically violated the truce by shelling both Syrian army positions and civilian communities.