A ceasefire agreed by Russia and Turkey has gone into effect in Syria's northwestern Idlib region, activists and a monitoring group confirmed in the early hours of Friday.
The halt in fighting was agreed amid growing concerns about an emerging proxy war between Turkey, which supports certain rebel groups in Syria's multi-sided civil war, and Russia, the main military backer of the Syrian state.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said shortly after midnight that cautious calm was prevailing on major fronts in Idlib.
Shortly before midnight, airstrikes by Russian warplanes and shelling by government forces was targeting the countryside of Idlib and areas in the western countryside of Hama, according to activists and the Observatory.
A Turkish drone also struck Syrian government forces posts in the countryside of Idlib, the Observatory added.
Syrian government shelling before midnight on al Naireb, west of the city of Saraqeb killed two Turkish soldiers, the Observatory said, but there was no immediate confirmation of the deaths from the Turkish side.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed on Thursday to a ceasefire for Syria's northwestern Idlib region, to take effect at midnight.
"We will first impose a ceasefire as soon as possible, then will swiftly take other steps that we agree on," Mr Erdogan told reporters. He cautioned that Turkey would retaliate to any attack by Syrian state forces.
Turkey has suffered dozens of casualties after sending troops into the northwestern Idlib region in recent weeks, to counter advances made by Syrian state forces into rebel-held areas.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Source: Kremlin
According to Mr Putin, however, the Syrian military did not know it was fighting Turkish troops, because their location had not been shared.
"No one, including Syrian forces, knew about their location," Putin told Erdogan at the meeting during their public opening remarks. The Syrian military also suffered "serious losses," the Russian president noted.
However, shortly after an attack last week in which more than 30 Turkish soldiers were killed, Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar said the troops' location had been shared with Russia.
A previous ceasefire deal for Idlib fell apart with Turkey and Russia n accusing each other of failing to adhere to that agreement.
Mr Erdogan accused the Syrian military of having directly targeted civilians. He said an estimated 1.5 million people from the Idlib region had moved towards Turkey's borders.
Turkey has deployed troops to Idlib to "maintain stability as part of a deal with Russia," Mr Erdogan said.
