Fighting for control of the divided city of some 2 million people has intensified in recent weeks and there have been some gains for rebel groups battling Syrian government forces.
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The Nusra Front is al-Qaida’s branch in Syria.
Russia has deployed Tupolev-22 bombers to an air base in the Iranian city of Hamadan where they will carry out air strikes against militants in Syria, Russia’s state-backed Rossiya 24 channel reported on Tuesday. Another 327 civilians, including 126 children, have been killed in fighting in Aleppo province, according to the Observatory.
Fighting for Aleppo, once Syria’s commercial capital and its largest city, has become the focal point of the nation’s civil war, now in its sixth year.
An worldwide rights group says the joint Syrian government and Russian military operation has been using incendiary weapons in civilian areas in northern Syria in violation of global law.
It said its Iranian-based bombers had been escorted by fighter jets based at Russia’s Hmeymim air base in Syria’s Latakia Province.
Russian warplanes took off on Tuesday from a base in Iran to target Islamic State fighters and other militants in Syria, according to Russia’s Defense Ministry.
Steve Goose, arms director at HRW, says the “Syrian government and Russian Federation should immediately stop attacking civilian areas with incendiary weapons”.
Also on Monday, the spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel called on Moscow to use its influence on Syria’s president to ease the suffering of Aleppo residents, and said the announcement by Russian Federation of a three-hour daily ceasefire to allow humanitarian aid into Aleppo is “cynical”, because three hours isn’t enough time to allow aid in.
Iran’s constitution, ratified after its 1979 Islamic Revolution, bans the establishment of any foreign military base in the country.
In Tehran, the state-run IRNA news agency quoted Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, as saying that Tehran and Moscow have exchanged “capacity and possibilities” in the fight against the Islamic State group.
The operation, in which USA special forces played a significant role, marks the most ambitious advance by a group allied to Washington in Syria since the United States launched its military campaign against ISIS two years ago.
The move shows Russia is expanding its role and presence in the Middle East and comes amid Russian media reports Moscow has asked Iran and Iraq for permission to fire cruise missiles at Syrian targets across their territory from the Caspian Sea.
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It said command centres, training camps and weapons depots were destroyed in Saraqib, al-Bab, Aleppo and Deir ez-Zor cities, and a “significant number” of militants killed.
