On Wednesday the Syrian army and allied militia carried out ground attacks on insurgent positions in Syria backed by Russian air strikes.
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Most of Idlib province is held by an insurgent alliance that includes al Qaeda’s Syria wing Nusra Front and other Islamist factions and that has put pressure on the Syrian military.
The majority of Russian airstrikes in Syria have targeted moderate rebel groups, the U.S. and Turkey have said. The officials were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. Russian Federation flies MIG-29s, as does Syria’s own air force.
“The president of France, Mr Hollande, voiced an interesting idea, according to which it would be possible, in his opinion, to try to unite the efforts of the government forces of President Assad and the so-called Free Syrian Army”, Putin said. The group, relying on witness testimonies and videos, said the strikes hit predominantly civilian areas in three villages and towns, including homes and a bread distribution centre.
Diplomatic and economic relations between Moscow and Cairo have flourished since U.S.-Egyptian ties temporarily cooled over the military overthrow of former president Mohammad Morsi in 2013. It was not clear if they were Syrian or Russian systems.
“They call on the Russian Federation to cease and desist, and immediately explain these violations”.
But Russian officials deny ramping up military activity. Iran has been bolstering Assad by sending weapons and advisers, and helping arrange the deployment of Shiite fighters from Iraq and Hezbollah, as well as sending financial aid.
All targets were destroyed, Shoigu said.
Wednesday’s clashes are the fiercest in the last month, the observatory said.
Spanish Defense Minister Pedro Morenes described the airspace incursion as “an incident that will hopefully never happen again”, but he emphasized that Spain’s Patriot battery was there to defend against any Syrian missile launches, not against other potential threats.
The Observatory and other activists said a military helicopter was downed in Kfar Nabouda, in northern Hama. It said that several of these were in Hama and Idlib, provinces with little Islamic State presence. The Observatory said Russian jets bombed areas near Kfar Nabouda.
Calling Moscow’s strategy “tragically flawed”, he renewed accusations that the strikes were not focused on Islamic State.
“If (the Syrian regime) weakens the opposition, it will strengthen Islamic State”, he said, warning of the risk of a new refugee flow.
“We will continue being deployed if the circumstances continue being like they are today”, he said.
Since September 2014, the coalition has been hitting Islamic State positions mostly in northern and eastern parts of Syria, as well as in Iraq. The US maintains that the only route to peace in Syria is to remove Assad from power.
Igor Konashenkov, an official with the Russian Defense Ministry, had told Russian news agencies that Turkey had suggested the creation of a joint working group, so that the two sides could coordinate actions related to Russian air strikes in Syria. He could not provide details, including how many times this has happened.
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There is no tension between Turkey and Russia in this sense.The issue of Syria is not a Turkish-Russian crisis, ” Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told HaberTurk TV following diplomatic discussion between the two countries. He urged Moscow to respect Turkey’s airspace, saying the country would not “make any concessions” on its border security. His comments came after Russian warplanes twice violated the airspace of key North Atlantic Treaty Organisation member Turkey in the last days. Turkey scrambled F-16s in response and also summoned the Russian ambassador to lodge a protest. The ministry said it was ready to hold talks with Turkey to avoid “misunderstandings” and invited foreign military officers to Moscow for talks on how best to fight Islamic State.
