Raids kill dozens in Syria’s Idlib, army advances in Aleppo

December 4, 2016 | By | Reply More

Suspected Russian Raids kill at least 46 people in opposition-held parts of Syria on Sunday, a monitor said, as government forces advanced in fierce clashes with rebels in east Aleppo.

Raids kill dozens in Syria'sSyria’s government is waging an offensive to recapture all of second city Aleppo, and it has so far captured more than 60 percent of the eastern districts that fell to rebels in 2012.

In Idlib province, in northwest Syria, at least 26 civilians were killed in suspected Russian strikes on the town of Kafr Nabel, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said.

An eyewitness told that warplanes hit several places in the town, including a local market.

The Observatory says it determines whose planes carries out raids according to their type, location, flight patterns and the munitions involved.

The group said 18 people were also killed in suspected Russian strikes on the town of Maaret al-Numan, where an photographer saw rescue workers and residents trying to pull survivors from the rubble at a vegetable market.

The monitor reported two additional deaths, one in an earlier strike on Maaret al-Numan and another in Al-Naqir, also in Idlib.

– Army advances in Aleppo –

Russia is a staunch ally of President Bashar al-Assad’s government and began a military intervention in support of Damascus in September 2015.

Moscow says it is targeting “terrorists” and has dismissed reports of civilian casualties in its strikes.

In Aleppo, government forces advanced against rebels in east Aleppo, taking two small neighbourhoods and pushing into a third, state media said.

Tens of thousands of civilians have fled the offensive, which has made steady gains and threatens to deal Syria’s opposition its worst defeat of the country’s five-year civil war.

State television said Sunday evening that the army had captured the districts of Karm al-Tahan and Myessar and advanced into the Qadi Askar neighbourhood.

The operation has already seen some 60 percent of east Aleppo fall to the government, and rebels are increasingly under pressure in the remaining southeastern districts under their control.

State news agency SANA said the air force was dropping leaflets over rebel-held areas urging “militants to abandon their weapons and… allow civilians and the sick and wounded to leave.”

Damascus says rebels are preventing civilians from leaving the east and attempting to use them as human shields.

But tens of thousands of residents have poured out of eastern neighbourhoods as the army has advanced, with some heading south to remaining rebel territory and others going to areas under government or Kurdish control.

– UN envoy urges talks –

Rebel fire on west of Aleppo has killed 69 civilians, including 28 children, in the same period, the monitor says.

The latest assault has only added to the massive destruction in east Aleppo, which has seen some of the worst violence throughout the conflict that began in March 2011 with anti-government protests.

The army has encouraged residents to return to recently recaptured neighbourhoods, but many who have ventured across to see their old homes have found nothing but rubble.

“This is all we found, this photo of my niece. It is precious to us, and we found a copy of the Koran, so we brought that too,” said Um Yayha, 55.

Despite international outcry over the conflict, successive bids to end Syria’s war have failed.

UN envoy Staffan de Mistura on Saturday urged a return to negotiations, warning of a “creeping, ongoing guerilla (war) and no reconstruction” unless peace talks resumed.

Press journalist for HRO media – Khizer Hayat reports.

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Category: Arab uprising

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