Local Coordination Committees said government warplanes had bombed areas in eastern Aleppo near the Kweiras military air base, which the IS group has besieged for months.
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Rebels from three Free Syrian Army-affiliated groups contacted by Reuters said new supplies had arrived since the start of the attack by the army backed by Iranian fighters and Lebanon’s Hezbollah. Losing partial control of the city, which was once Syria’s largest and its commercial capital, was an embarrassment to the regime.
Russian Federation “carried out 36 sorties from the Hmeimim air base” to Hama, Idlib, Latakia, Damascus and Aleppo provinces, the ministry said.
Kerry additionally stated he feared the results of Russia’s air strikes in Syria.
Rami Abdulrahman, director of UK-based monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said there were heavy clashes near the Jebel Azzan region, about 12 km (8 miles) south of Aleppo city.
Medical organizations operating in Syria say hospitals have become regular targets of Russia’s airstrike campaign that began in Syria late last month.
Meanwhile, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov met with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukri in Cairo, agreeing “to intensify efforts to effectively counter the menace posed by IS”, a Russian ministry statement said.
The offensive came as Turkey said it had downed a drone of unknown origin that violated its airspace close to the Syrian border, and a monitor said the death toll in the conflict had risen to more than 250,000.
A US-designated “terrorist”, a member of Al-Nusra, Saudi national Sanafi al-Nasr was killed in an air strike in Aleppo province along with two other senior Al-Nusra members, the Observatory said.
Russian officials say they expected a cold reception from the US and its allies.
Troops have been trying to seize the village of Talbisseh, controlled by non-jihadist rebels in an enclave north of government-held Homs city.
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Speaking with Reason TV about US involvement in the disastrous Syrian civil war, Weiss laments, “I can speak glibly about no-fly zones, but at this point I just understand this administration is never going to do anything to rescue the Syrian people or prevent Assad, Iran, and Russian Federation from killing everybody they want to”.
