ANKARA, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- Turkish and Russian troops on Thursday have completed the 6th round of joint ground patrol in northern Syria, as part of a deal over the withdrawal of Syrian Kurdish militia from Turkey's border.

"Turkish and Russian units accompanied by UAVs completed the sixth joint land patrol in the east of the Euphrates as planned," said the Turkish defense ministry in a written statement.

"In sixth land patrol carried out in the Darbasiyah region, four vehicles from each side were joined by UAVs. Turkish and Russian units completed the patrol in an area of 45 km in length and 8 to 9 km in depth," read the statement.

The patrols are part of a memorandum between Ankara and Moscow to remove fighters of the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) 30 km from the Turkish border.

Ankara sees the YPG as the Syrian offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party.

On Oct. 9, Turkey launched a military incursion, named Operation Peace Spring, into northern Syria in a bid to drive Kurdish fighters out of the border region, following the pullout of U.S. troops.

The U.S. reached a deal with Turkey on Oct. 17, imposing a five-day cease-fire to allow the Kurdish forces to pull back from the planned "safe zone" which Turkey wants to create in northern Syria to ensure its border security.

On Oct. 22, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin held a meeting in Sochi, Russia, agreeing on the pullout of the YPG fighters to 30 km south of Turkey's border within 150 hours and the launch of joint patrols between Turkish and Russian soldiers 10 km from the Turkish border in an agreed region that excludes the city of Qamishli. Enditem

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