Syrian regime retakes Aleppo water station; Ghouta truce announced

A displaced Syrian child, who fled their hometowns due to clashes between regime forces and the Islamic State (IS) group, eats outside a tent in Kharufiyah, 18 kilometres south of Manbij, in this March 4, 2017 photo. (AFP)

BEIRUT: Russian-backed Syrian regime forces on Tuesday retook from Daesh a pumping station that supplies water to second city Aleppo, a monitoring group said.
“Regime forces took over the area of Al-Khafsa and seized the water-pumping station after the withdrawal of Daesh,” said Rami Abdel Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The terrorists fled in the face of a regime offensive backed by Russian airstrikes, he said.
The Al-Khafsah pumping station provides the water supply for Aleppo and residents of the regime-held city had been without mains supplies for some 50 days since the militants cut it.
Meanwhile, a cease-fire has been declared in Syria’s Eastern Ghouta, an opposition bastion near Damascus, to run from midnight last Sunday to March 20, Russia’s Defense Ministry said.
“A ‘regime of silence’ has been introduced from 00:01 on March 6 to 23:59 on March 20 (Damascus time) in the area of Eastern Ghouta,” the ministry said in a statement on Tuesday. It added that “no violations” had so far been reported.
Separately, the top generals of the Turkish, Russian and US military met Tuesday in a bid to step up coordination in Syria and avoid clashes between rival forces in the fight against Daesh.
The meeting between Turkish Chief of Staff Hulusi Akar, US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford and Russian Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov appears to be the first of its kind.
Their discussions in the southern Turkish city of Antalya come as a US-led coalition is making progress to push Daesh out of Syria, where Ankara has been increasing its efforts against the terrorists.
A senior Turkish official said the US appears to have decided to enlist the help of Kurdish YPG militia in the campaign to push Daesh out of its Raqqa stronghold in Syria, thwarting Turkey’s ambitions.
“We are not sure at this stage but it appears that the US may carry out this operation with the YPG, not with Turkey. And at the same time the US is giving weapons to the YPG,” the official said.
“If this operation is carried out in this manner, there will be a cost for Turkey-US relations.
Turkish premier said the US, Turkey and Russia must coordinate fully to clear Syria of terrorist groups. Binali Yildirim, speaking at a news conference in Ankara, said a risk of clashes would emerge if there was not full coordination.