Russian air strikes in Syria have killed 370 people since they began on September 30, around a third of them civilians, a monitoring group said Tuesday.
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Another 75 people were injured in the raids on the Jabal al-Akrad area, near the mountain front lines between government forces and rebels, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.
A Russian defense official in Moscow said the “memorandum of understanding” suggests a potential for U.S.-Russian counterterrorism cooperation, but US officials said it was a narrow arrangement that does not lessen Washington’s concern about the Russian military campaign in Syria.
The air strikes focused on the mountainous Jabal al-Akrad area, which the rebels have held for three years, using its high ground to position artillery and bombard President Assad’s ancestral village of Qardha and the airport at Latakia.
But the United States – which is leading a separate bombing campaign in coordination with other Western and Middle Eastern states – has accused Russian Federation of chiefly targeting moderate rebel groups battling President Bashar al-Assad.
“It is out of the question to establish and maintain peace and stability in Syria with a sect-based state, which has killed so many of its own people and that relies on just 10 percent of its total population”, he said.
Activists say Russian airstrikes have killed dozens of people in a Syrian coastal province.
The Observatory also said tens of thousands were fleeing the new offensives, estimating that up to 100,000 had been forced from their homes in Hama, Aleppo and Latakia provinces.
In reply to the Interfax specifying question whether the Syrian Kurds support the Russian initiative on a broad anti-terrorist coalition, Abdullah said: “Yes, the Syrian Kurds support it”.
Iran, a key Assad ally, has reportedly sent hundreds of troops to fight alongside his forces.
The Aleppo-Damascus highway via Hama and Homs provinces appears to be the main target of several of the recent offensives.
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At least 127 civilians have been killed in the strikes, including 36 children and 34 women, it said. The Syrian regime’s forces were being given logistical support and Iranian intelligence had to be active, the official said, “otherwise we would be fighting Isis in the metros of Tehran”.
