First group of Russian warplanes withdraws from Syria

MOSCOW

The first group of Russian Air Force aircraft has started to withdraw from the Hmeimim Airbase located near Syria’s port city of Latakia, Russian media reported Tuesday.

According to official Russian news agency TASS, a leader plane, Tupolev-154 liner, and multi-role Sukhoi-34 bombers were part of the first group of aircraft that were redeployed to Russia.

"Each group consists of the leader - a military transport jet [Tupolev-154 or Ilyushin-76] carrying engineering personnel and material assets and equipment, followed by Russian combat planes of different types," Russian Defense Ministry told TASS.

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Monday that Russia will start withdrawing "most" of its forces from Syria Tuesday.

"I think that the tasks set to the Defense Ministry are generally fulfilled. That is why I order to begin withdrawal of most of our military group from Syria starting from tomorrow," TASS quoted Putin as saying Monday.

The announcement about the reduction came after a fresh round of talks to resolve the Syria crisis began in Geneva Monday.

Staffan de Mistura, UN special envoy for Syria, said in a statement Tuesday: "The announcement by President Putin on the very day of the beginning of this round of Intra-Syrian talks in Geneva is a significant development, which we hope will have a positive impact on the progress of the negotiations in Geneva aimed at achieving a political solution of the Syrian conflict and a peaceful political transition in the country".

However, main Syrian opposition bloc's High Negotiations Committee spokesman Salem al-Muslet said in Geneva Tuesday: "We want to see action on the ground in Syria. Hearing is different than what we see on the ground.

"It is a positive step if they are serious to really implementing that…we will wait and see, l believe, our decision will be based on what we see on the ground."

Britain also urged caution over Russia’s troop withdrawal announcement, saying none of the countries in the coalition opposed to Assad had seen detailed plans.

Speaking in the House of Commons Tuesday afternoon, U.K. Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said: “We do not yet have any independent evidence to verify Russia's claims that military withdrawals have already begun. We're monitoring developments closely. It will be important to judge Russia by its actions”.

Hammond urged caution. “And it is worth remembering that Russia announced withdrawal of forces in Ukraine which later turned out to be merely routine rotation of forces,” he said.

He added it was now time for all parties to concentrate on UN-backed peace talks in Geneva, which resumed on Monday after a break of several weeks.

Russia launched its military intervention in Syria in late September last year supposedly after a formal request by the Assad regime for military help.

Since then, it has been staging airstrikes against positions held by Assad’s opponents.

The U.S. and Turkey reject Russia's presence in Syria on the grounds that Russian airstrikes killed mostly civilians.

Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011 when the Bashar al-Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity.

Since then, more than 250,000 people have been killed and more than 10 million displaced, according to the UN.

(Michael Daventry from London and AA correspondent from Geneva contributed to this report.)