Rebels posted video of fighters launching shells at what they called 'Assad gangs'
BEIRUT: Insurgents detonated at least five car bombs and fired 370 rockets at two Shia villages in northwestern Syria yesterday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, in a new assault on besieged government-held areas.
An alliance of insurgent groups, including Al Nusra Front, attacked Al Foua and Kefraya in Idlib province bordering Turkey and mostly held by insurgents after rebel advances this year.
Thousands of civilians have been living under siege in the two villages, still held by government forces. Fierce clashes raged between government forces and insurgents of the ‘Army of Conquest’, a coalition of groups that includes Al Nusra Front and Ahrar Al Sham, the observatory said. The number of casualties was not immediately clear.
Warring sides agreed to a brief ceasefire last month in the two villages and in Zabadani, a rebel-held town near the Lebanese border under siege by government forces and Lebanese Shia group Hezbollah, a Damascus ally.
But the two-day ceasefire, the second that month, collapsed before wounded people could be evacuated from both areas.
Government forces have intensified assault on Zabadani and say they are on the verge of seizing the town, where insurgents are holed up in its centre.
In Washington, an official said Russia has deployed four fighter jets to an air base in Syria where it has been building up forces in recent weeks.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed reports that four Russian jets had been seen on the ground at Latakia air base in western Syria, the heart of a Russian force build-up in the country. Moscow and Washington say they want to fight the Islamic State jihadist group in Syria but differ over how to treat Bashar Al Assad’s regime Russia sees as a bulwark against the extremists. AFP
LONDON: The Syrian conflict has gone on for too long and it is time to re-examine ways to end the four-year war and worsening refugee crisis, US. Secretary of State John Kerry said on the first day of talks in Europe yesterday.
Kerry said initial military talks between the US and Russia by telephone were an important beginning to avoid either side coming into conflict with the other in Syria. Talks between US Defence Secretary Ash Carter and Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu were the first looking at exploring ways to avoid accidental military interactions in Syria.
