Dozens dead as warplanes pound rebel-held north Syria
Syrian and Russian warplanes have launched a
wave of air strikes in northern Syria, killing dozens
in areas held by a rebel alliance battling to take
control of second city Aleppo.
The strikes, which began on Saturday and were
continuing on Sunday, killed at least 45 civilians in
Aleppo and west of the city and 22 more in
neighbouring Idlib province, a monitoring group
said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the
strikes were targeting areas held by the Army of
Conquest, an alliance of rebel, Islamist and jihadist
forces that has mounted a major offensive to seize
Aleppo.
“The intensification of the strikes in Idlib is due to
the fact that this province is the main source of
fighters for the Army of Conquest,” the head of the
Britain-based Observatory, Rami Abdel Rahman,
told AFP.
An AFP correspondent in rebel-held eastern Aleppo
said the strikes were especially intense around the
southern district of Ramussa, seized by rebel
fighters earlier this month in a major setback for
forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad.
Nine other civilians were killed in rebel shelling of
regime-held western Aleppo on Saturday, the
Observatory said.
Aleppo, Syria’s former economic hub and a focal
point of the country’s five-year civil war, has been
divided between a rebel-held east and regime-
controlled west since mid-2012.
Intensifying battle
Fighting for the city has intensified this summer,
after regime troops seized control of the last supply
route into rebel-held areas in mid-July.
After a nearly three-week siege, rebel forces took
Ramussa on August 6, linking up with opposition-
held neighbourhoods.
Emboldened by the win, the Army of Conquest
announced an ambitious bid to capture all of
Aleppo, which if successful would be the biggest
opposition victory yet in Syria’s conflict.
The increased fighting has raised deep concerns for
the estimated 1.5 million civilians still in Aleppo,
including some 250,000 in rebel-controlled areas.
The United Nations has called for regular 48-hour
pauses in the fighting to allow aid into the city,
which has suffered from severe shortages of food,
water and medical supplies.
Russia launched air strikes last September in
support of Assad, helping the regime to consolidate
its hold on loyal areas and regain some territory.
The defence ministry in Moscow said Sunday that
six long-range bombers from Russia had struck
around Deir Ezzor, a stronghold of the Islamic State
group in Syria.
IS controls large parts of Deir Ezzor city and most
of oil-rich Deir Ezzor province in the east of the
country — part of the swathes of territory in Syria
and Iraq that the group seized in mid-2014.
The ministry said in a statement that the Russian
Tupolev bombers carried out raids to the southwest,
east and northeast of the city, wiping out two
command posts, six arms depots, IS vehicles and “a
large number of fighters”.
IS emerged amid the chaos of Syria’s conflict, a
complex and multi-front war that has left more
than 290,000 dead and forced millions from their
homes since beginning with anti-regime protests in
March 2011.
Girl evacuated
A US-led coalition is also battling IS in Syria and
Iraq, with air strikes and backing for the Syrian
Democratic Forces, an Arab-Kurdish militia alliance,
which on Friday took full control of the strategic
city of Manbij after an IS retreat.
The jihadists took some 2,000 civilians as they fled
to serve as human shields. Hundreds were released
on Saturday but the SDF said the fate of many
remained unclear.
Kurdish television showed footage of jubilant
civilians in Manbij, including smiling mothers who
had shed their veils and men who had lived for
weeks under a shaving ban cutting their beards.
In rare good news from the conflict, a 10-year-old
girl who was shot in the besieged town of Madaya
was evacuated to a Damascus hospital where she
was in a stable condition, the Observatory and a
Syrian security source said.
Ghina Quwayder’s leg was shattered when she was
shot by a government sniper at a checkpoint in the
southwestern town earlier this month while buying
medicine for her mother, according to Amnesty
International.
The rights group had launched a campaign urging
help for the girl to be evacuated. The Syrian Red
Crescent was able to bring Ghina and her mother
Sahar to Damascus after midnight on Sunday.
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