A Russian military Ilyushin Il-76 strategic airlift aircraft takes off from Qamishli International Airport in northeastern Syria's Hasakah province. AFP
The departure comes as Kurdish forces, who once controlled swathes of territory in the country's north and east, have withdrawn in the face of military pressure, as the country's new Islamist authorities seek to extend control across the country.
Russian forces, which backed former Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad until his ouster in 2024, took over the Qamishli airport as a military base in November 2019 following a large-scale Turkish offensive against Kurdish fighters.
A Syrian military official in Hasakeh province in the country's northeast told AFP that "Russian forces are withdrawing heavy equipment and weapons from Qamishli airport via aircraft to the Hmeimim base", Russia's airbase on the Mediterranean coast.
An AFP correspondent saw a cargo plane bearing the Russian flag taking off from the airport in the Kurdish-majority city earlier on Tuesday.
"The last Russian plane has departed," a member of the Kurdish security forces guarding the facility told AFP.
The correspondent on Monday had seen Russian flags, cargo, helicopters, and equipment such as radars inside the base, all of which were absent the following day.
Kurdish authorities and the Syrian government did not immediately respond to AFP requests for comment.
In 2019, US President Donald Trump, whose country had long supported the Kurds in their fight against the Islamic State group, said he would withdraw US troops from northeastern Syria.
The Kurds then started talks with Assad and his main ally, Russia, which subsequently began to conduct patrols in the area and acted as a buffer between the Kurds and Turkish forces.
Both Russia and Syria's new Islamist authorities have been looking to reset ties, and Moscow is particularly keen to build good relations with Damascus to secure agreements over the Hmeimim airbase and the Tartus naval base on the Mediterranean coast, its only official military outposts outside the former Soviet Union.
The Kurds this month agreed to integrate their administration in the northeast into Syria's new Islamist government, and the two sides are largely observing a two-week ceasefire, which expires early next month, to enable further talks on the merger.
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