A Kurdish official said the shelling targeted the Menagh air base in the northern Aleppo countryside, which he said had been captured by the Kurdish-allied Jaysh al-Thuwwar group.
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Syrian opposition activists say Turkish troops are firing artillery shells at areas in northern Syria that are held by Syrian Kurdish fighters. The government forces aim to advance in the direction of the ISIS capital in the coming days.
Tabqa is the location of an air base captured by Islamic State two years ago, and the source said the army had moved to within 35 km (20 miles) of the base.
Major powers agreed in Munich on Friday to a cessation of hostilities in Syria, but the deal does not take effect until the end of this week and was not signed by any warring parties – the Damascus government and numerous rebel factions fighting it.
Russian warplanes carried out at least 12 raids on rebel-held towns north of Aleppo overnight Friday-Saturday, the Observatory said.
President Bashar al-Assad has vowed to recapture the whole of Syria and keep “fighting terrorism” while also negotiating an end to the war, as global pressure mounts for a ceasefire. German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier is only marginally more confident, and gave it a 51 percent chance. He explained that the International Syria Support Group had scaled back its goals, deliberately avoiding a formal ceasefire that has tougher, legally binding requirements.
Lavrov stated that “many countries, including the United States, remain focused on “the issue of Assad”, though the UN Security Council Resolution stipulates, and we reiterated it today, that only the Syrian people will decide the fate of Syria”.
The agreement, which would allow the immediate delivery of much needed food, water and medical supplies to Syrian civilians, is not being called a cease-fire, which Kerry described as a more permanent step.
Moscow has denied it was bombing civilians but thousands have been fleeing the city towards the border with Turkey. The agreement calls for a cessation of hostilities to start in a week in Syria but excludes Islamic State militants and the Al-Nusra Front, which Russian Federation said it would continue targeting with air strikes. This camp maintains that the fall of the regime will enable terrorist groups to seize control of the Syrian state because balances of power on the ground are heavily in favor of these groups and against the moderate opposition.
Saudi Arabia has expressed readiness to deploy special forces in Syria if the US-led coalition decides to deploy ground troops.
The world has plunged into a “new Cold War”, the Russian premier said on Saturday, as East-West tensions over Syria and Ukraine dominated a gathering of world leaders in Germany.
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev told the group, “Without doubt, all sides have to abide to the Minsk agreement, but primarily the implementation depends on the authorities in Kiev”.
Seemingly in response to such remarks, Mr Medvedev said there was no need to scare anyone with a ground operation in Syria.
French PM Manuel Valls and US Secretary of State John Kerry said civilians were dying in Russian air strikes. “We are simply trying to protect our national interests”, he said, adding that Moscow wanted to prevent Islamist militants getting to Russian Federation.
Russia’s assertive posture in Syria and over Ukraine has raised diplomats’ concerns about geopolitical instability. The ISSG members also asked the United Nations to resume the collapsed peace talks between the Syrian government and HNC that would represent a number of opposition groups in upcoming talks.
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Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who had been pressing for a ceasefire to begin March 1, said the USA and Russia would co-chair both the working group on humanitarian aid as well as the group that will try to deal with the “modalities” of the temporary truce. “Saudi Arabia is sending planes and says, “I can send soldiers for a ground operation when it is necessary”.
