Russian aircraft, as reported by the media, attacked the positions of armed opposition in the Syrian province of Idlib.
Photo: Reuters
Says the London-based centre for monitoring human rights in Syria, the planes of the Russian Military space forces on Tuesday flew about 30 sorties and struck targets in Western Idlib, in the mountains of Latakia and in the valley of al-Gab.
The attacks also reported supporting the opposition news Agency Step News. Anatolian news Agency, citing sources in the Syrian opposition reported that three Russian fighter took to the air from the air base Hamim, struck 20 times.
Reliable data on dead and wounded yet.
As noted by the monitoring centre for human rights in Syria, this is the first Russian air strikes in 22 days .
Press Secretary of Russian President Dmitry Peskov did not comment on reports of air strikes on Idlib, noting, however, that there is “formed a nest of terrorism” that “leads to a General destabilization of the situation”.
“We know that Syrian forces are preparing to solve this problem,” he said.
The situation poses a threat to the Russian temporary base in Syria, Peskov added.
“I don’t have, of course, operational information about what our military”, — said the press Secretary of the President, answering a corresponding question of journalists. As reported by “Interfax”, he was advised to refer the matter to the Ministry of defence.
On the eve of the US President Donald trump said that the Syrian army with the support of Iran and Russia should not attack Idlib.
“Syrian President Bashar al-Assad should not recklessly attack the province of Idlib. The Russians and the Iranians would have committed a serious humanitarian the mistake of taking part in this potential human tragedy. Hundreds of thousands of people may be killed. Don’t let this happen!” — trump wrote on Twitter.
Iranian foreign Minister Javad Zarif said that Tehran has made efforts to “clean the territory of Idlib from terrorists with minimal civilian casualties,” reports the news Agency IRNA.
What is happening in Idlib
The province is home to about 3 million people, there are, according to the UN estimates, about 10 thousand jihadists of the terrorist organizations “al Qaeda” and “jabhat an-Nusra.” Both of them are banned in many countries.
Fighting for Idlib being from the beginning of the civil war in Syria in 2011. The region remains the last of the major territorial formations in Syria, which is not controlled by the regime of Bashar al-Assad. On the territory of Idlib, the so-called area of de-escalation, where there might be insurgents. Maintaining a calm environment in these zones is provided by the guarantors of security — Russia, Turkey and Iran.
In late August the Minister of defense of Syria , Ali Ayub said that Damascus will return control of Idlib province and to cleanse its territory or military operations, or by conciliation agreement. Such talks, the Syrian authorities are from the end of July.
One more loud statement was the words of the Minister of foreign Affairs of Russia Sergey Lavrov that the terrorists should be driven out of Idlib. According to Lavrov, they are responsible for the lives of civilians being used as human shields. Lavrov and his Syrian counterpart Walid Muallem announced that the rebels are preparing a chemical attack in Idlib to accuse them of organizing the forces of Bashar al-Assad to provoke another intervention of the coalition led by the United States.
What is known about the use of chemical weapons in Idlib
4 April 2017 in the Syrian province of Idlib near the village of Khan shaykhun was applied, according to the UN, the nerve poison sarin. During the investigation of this incident, experts from the group to gather information, the OPCW found evidence of two cases of the use of poisonous substances in the village of Stamina near Khan Shaykhun, which occurred on 24 and 25 March.
Council for human rights blamed the use of chemical weapons in Khan Sheyhun on government forces came to the conclusion that the attack involved an aircraft of the Syrian air force. Russia and Syria flatly reject all these accusations.
At the end of August 2018, the Russian defense Ministry said that in Idlib is preparing a provocation with the use of chemical weapons, the responsibility for which the West will impose on Damascus. Russia’s permanent representative to the UN , Vasily Nebenzia claimed at a meeting of the UN security Council that chemical weapons in Idlib brought the staff of the volunteer organization “White helmets” who were supposedly trained staging experts of the British private military company Olive Group. Representatives of the company in conversation with the newspaper “Sputnik” (part of the Russian state holding “Russia today”) has denied these accusations.
