Abu Mohamed, a civil defense officer in Azaz, said Russian warplanes launched strikes on parts of the town Monday, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
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President Recep Tayyip Erdogan today vowed Turkey would not allow the creation of a Kurdish stronghold in northern Syria, saying there was no question of Turkish forces stopping their bombardment of Syrian Kurdish fighters.
“However, 88 percent of the Russian airstrikes targeted civilians and the opposition forces, while only 12 percent of the attacks hit Daesh”.
He said they would meet again later Tuesday “to address this urgent issue which is as you know related to the wellbeing of all Syrian people and is connected to the very clear discussions and conclusions of the Munich conference”.
The Obama administration, frustrated by Syria’s ongoing violence, told Russian Federation on Tuesday to “put up or shut up” about implementing a ceasefire in the Arab country, even as the USA backpedaled from an agreement for the truce to begin by Friday.
The facilities in Azaz and Idlib were amongst at least five hospitals and two schools that were hit by air strikes on Monday, prompting Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, to become the first major Western leader to call for a no-fly zone to be imposed.
“The YPG and PYD are not representatives of the Kurds, not of Syria, they are Russianlegionnaires and mercenaries”, he said.
The UN’s spokesman on human rights, Rupert Colville, said: “Clearly Syrian and Russian planes are very active in this area”.
Ankara sees the Syrian Kurdish militia as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which has fought a three-decade insurgency for Kurdish autonomy in Turkey’s southeast.
The worldwide medical charity, also known by its French acronym MSF, said in a statement released Monday that the hospital in the northwestern town of Maaret al-Numan was hit by four missiles a few minutes apart that destroyed the building.
Damascus gave the green light to the aid convoys after the United Nations special envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura visited the capital on Tuesday.
The U.N. envoy arrived in the Syrian capital Monday for discussions on aid deliveries and resuming peace talks in Geneva.
“That the (President Bashar al-) Assad regime and its supporters would continue these attacks, without cause and without sufficient regard for global obligations to safeguard innocent lives, flies in the face of the unanimous calls by the ISSG (International Syria Support Group)… to avoid attacks on civilians”, the State Department said.
“Turkey is not going to have a unilateral ground operation”, the official said.
SDF official Ahmad Hiso said Turkish troops shelled northern Syria.
Turkish artillery returned fire into Syria for a fourth straight day on Tuesday, targeting the Kurdish YPG militia which Ankara says is being backed by Moscow.
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As Syria’s war grinds into a sixth year, Moscow has become the dominant force in Syria’s congested skies, an airspace it now shares with warplanes from across Europe, the Gulf and Syria.
