Russia deploys military police at 'safe zone' in Syria

Lt.-Gen. Sergei Rudskoi of the Russian Military General Staff, speaks to the media in front of a screen showing Russian servicemen distributing humanitarian aid to Syrians, in Moscow, Monday, July 24, 2017. (AP / Alexander Zemlianichenko)

MOSCOW - Russia's General Staff says it has deployed military police to monitor the cease-fire in a safe zone in the eastern suburbs of Syria's Damascus.

The zone is one of four proposed in a plan approved in May by Russia, Iran, which supports Syrian President Bashar Assad, and Turkey, which backs rebels fighting his forces. Under the Russian plan, Assad's air force would halt flights over designated areas across the war-torn country.

Col. Gen. Sergei Rudskoi told a news conference Monday that Russia set up two check-points and four monitoring posts in the area known as eastern Ghouta. The Russian Defence Ministry last week said that the Syrian government and the opposition reached an agreement on the boundaries of the zone, several days after bombardment and airstrikes in the area.