MOSCOW (Reuters) – A roadside bomb planted by Syrian militants in the de-escalation zone in Idlib detonated near a joint Russian-Turkish patrol on Tuesday morning, injuring three Russian soldiers and some Turkish soldiers, the Russian Defence Ministry said.
Russia called off the patrol following the blast near the town of Ariha in Idlib province that damaged one Russian and one Turkish armoured personel carrier, the ministry said.
It was evacuating its equipment from the area and moving its troops to the Hmeimim air base where some of them would receive treatment, it said.
An unconfirmed social media video of the attack circulated by Russia’s RIA news agency showed a powerful explosion right by a convoy of passing armoured vehicles.
Two Turkish sources said there were no Turkish casualties in the attack.
(Reporting by Tom Balmforth and Maxim Rodionov in Moscow and Daren Butler in Istanbul; Editing by William Maclean)
