MOSCOW: The first Russian troops returned home on Tuesday from their deployment in Syria, the army said, beginning a partial withdrawal announced by President Vladimir Putin.

“The battalion of military police from the southern military district (of Russia) deployed to the Syrian Arab Republic has been flown by two military planes to Makhachkala (the capital of Dagestan) airport,” the Russian army said in a statement.

State television broadcasted images of soldiers marching out of the aircraft onto a sunny runway in the small republic in Russia’s North Caucasus.

The crews of Tu-22M3 bombers also returned to a military airport in North Ossetia before flying out to their permanent base in central Kaluga region, the army said.

The crew of an A-50 surveillance aircraft flew back to their home base in Ivanovo region where they were met by commanding officers and relatives.

On a visit to Syria on Monday, Putin ordered the partial withdrawal of Russian troops from the war-torn country, saying their task had been largely completed.

It was the third announcement of a partial withdrawal since troops were deployed in 2015. Putin did not clarify how many soldiers will be returning home this time.

Putin, who announced last week he would seek a fourth term in a poll in March, was welcomed at Russia’s Hmeimim airbase by Syrian President Bashar Al Assad on his unannounced stopover.

RBK news agency cited sources as saying that Russia will pull out two-thirds of its contingent, both personnel and equipment, from Syria, which could take up to a month.

Russia first intervened in the Syrian conflict in 2015, staging air strikes in support of its ally Damascus targeting both the Daesh group and other militants as well as rebels fighting government troops.

The size of the Russian deployment in Syria is not known but independent Russian military expert Pavel Felgenhauer has said that up to 10,000 troops and private contractors could have taken part in the conflict.

Russia will keep a naval and an air base in Syria capable of carrying out strikes against “terrorists” if required, the Kremlin said on Tuesday.

On Monday, Putin said both Russia’s airbase Hmeimim and naval facility in Tartus would continue to function.

“Thanks to the fact that the operation to save Syria and the liberation of Syrian land from terrorists have been completed, there is no longer a need for broad-scale combat strength,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

But he added that Russia will keep the Hmeymim air base in Syria’s Latakia Province and its naval facility in the port of Tartous.

“The President stressed that the terrorists might try to ‘walk tall’ again in Syria. If that happens, crushing blows will be carried out,” Peskov said.

The Russian president made the Syria stopover, the first by a Russian head of state since president Dmitry Medvedev visited in 2010, en route to Egypt, where he met Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi.

More than 340,000 people have been killed since the conflict broke out in March 2011 with protests against Assad’s rule that sparked a brutal crackdown.

On Thursday, Moscow announced a “total liberation” of Syrian territory from Daesh, even though the militant group still controls several pockets in the country.

Agence France-Presse