Islamist insurgents are reported to have shot dead 56 Syrian soldiers in a mass execution at a captured air base.
Advertisement
The aerial barrage was “one of the strongest attacks by Syrian warplanes against positions in Palmyra since ISIS captured it” on May 21, according to observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman.
The air strikes came a day after the Syrian army carried out heavy air raids in the northern city of Raqqa, an IS hotbed, in which close to 18 jihadists and civilians were killed.
Nine days ago, the Army of Conquest, as well as al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra and the Turkistan Islamic Party, launched an attack on the base during an hours-long sandstorm.
The powerful coalition has seized nearly all of Idlib province except for Fuaa and Kafraya, two regime-controlled villages inhabited by Shiite Muslims.
Elsewhere, the Army of Conquest lost 17 fighters as it intensified its assault on the last two regime-held villages in the northwestern province of Idlib.
Meanwhile, people from the two Shiite towns who live in Damascus staged several rallies recently at the global road of the Damascus airport, demanding that the government forces and the Lebanese Hezbollah group transport them to Foa and Kafraya.
On September 9, the Syrian state-run TV said Syrian forces had evacuated the Abu-al-Duhur airfield after a two-year siege, during which supplies for the troops have to be air dropped by helicopters.
However, the White House opened the door to possible tactical discussions with Moscow on Thursday.
On Friday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said President Barack Obama saw military talks with Russian Federation on Syria as an important next step and hoped they would take place soon.
Advertisement
“Our focus remains on destroying ISIL and also on a political settlement with respect to Syria, which we believe can not be achieved with the long-term presence of Assad“, he told reporters.
