The Defense Ministry says the Tu-22M3 bombers flew from their base in Russia Thursday to strike targets southeast, north and northwest of Raqqa.
Advertisement
Russian Federation said the raids destroyed a “chemical weapons factory” on Raqqa’s outskirts as well as a weapons storage facility and ISIL training camp to the north and southeast.
A senior United Nations humanitarian official, Jan Egeland, said the Russian offer of a daily three-hour truce “is really nothing”.
A humanitarian convoy has delivered 800 metric tons of essential supplies to Syria’s contested city of Aleppo, including food supplies, drinking water, school equipment, hygiene products and household chemicals, during a three-hour pause in airstrikes.
“We desperately need a zone free from bombing over eastern Aleppo to stop the attacks and global action to ensure Aleppo is never besieged again”. Egeland spoke at a joint press conference with the U.N. Syria envoy, Staffan de Mistura.
Government and opposition forces have both denied using chemical weapons during the war.
Russian Federation on Wednesday announced a daily ceasefire in Aleppo from 0700 GMT to 1000 GMT to allow humanitarian aid into the embattled city. In response, government-loyal ground troops backed by air support from Russian Federation have been mounting a counterattack there in what appears to be a crucial escalation in the five-year-old Syrian conflict.
There have been unconfirmed reports among activists and residents of chlorine gas falling on rebel-held east Aleppo since the insurgent offensive. The Syrian government and Russian Federation have previously denied targeting medical facilities.
Syrians in the region have been reusing disposable medical supplies, like syringes, and people have expressed concerns that ambulances and hospital generators will be unable to run as fuel levels continue to degrade. “These attacks are appalling and must cease”, the White House said in a statement. If no action is taken, the doctors warned, there won’t be any medical facilities left within a month.
A Syrian government airstrike on an opposition-held district in the embattled city of Aleppo killed at least two people in what was alleged to have been a chlorine gas attack, a Syrian rescue worker and opposition activists said Thursday. The group said a security building and a water pumping station were hit in the city, among other targets on Thursday morning. Many residents said the attack was carried out by government helicopters.
The offer by Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu to coordinate with Russia on operations against ISIS followed a meeting between the Russian and Turkish leaders this week in which they agreed to mend ties.
“Russia has created this humanitarian catastrophe not only in Aleppo but across Syria”, says Reza Afshar, a policy director for the advisory group Independent Diplomat, and adviser to the Syrian opposition coalition. “We said we have a common enemy which we can struggle against together”.
Advertisement
The Syrian Observatory of Human Rights released a report this month saying that Aleppo had been under attack for 80 straight days, with 6,000 people either killed or injured.
