An improvised explosive device has gone off in front of a Russian armoured police vehicle in Syria, Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Monday.
According to the ministry's statement, the incident occurred as a Russian-Turkish joint patrol conducted route reconnaissance some 1.5 kilometres to the west of a town in the Kobane district of Aleppo Governorate in northern Syria.
The three servicemen who were in the vehicle at the moment of the explosion sustained minor non-life-threatening injuries, the ministry added. There was some damage to the vehicle as well.
On 22 October, Turkey and Russia concluded a memorandum that detailed conditions for a peaceful withdrawal of Kurdish forces to a distance of 18.6 miles from the Turkish border. The 10-point document envisions regular joint patrol missions to ensure the implementation of the deal.
The adoption of the memorandum comes after a week-long military operation launched by Turkey on 9 October that sought to rid the region of the SDF, viewed as a terrorist organisation by Turkey due to its ties with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party.