SpaceWar.com - Your World At War
At least 2 dead in Russian strikes in northwest Syria: rescuers
Ain Shib, Syria, Aug 22 (AFP) Aug 22, 2023
At least two civilians were killed when Russian air strikes hit an abandoned water pumping station in Syria's rebel-held northwest, first responders said Wednesday, amid a recent uptick in attacks by the Syrian government's ally Moscow.

Two strikes late Tuesday near Ain Shib, west of the city of Idlib, hit the facility where displaced Syrians had been living, an AFP correspondent at the scene said.

Rescuers said two civilians had been killed, with the correspondent seeing one of the bodies lying on the ground.

Several inhabitants of the building were unaccounted for, the correspondent added.

Moscow's intervention in Syria's war since 2015 has helped Damascus claw back much of the territory it lost to rebel forces early in the 12-year civil conflict.

The rebel-held Idlib region is home to about three million people, around half of them displaced from other parts of the country.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group, said the strikes near Ain Shib had targeted "military bases belonging to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS)", the jihadist group that controls the bastion.

It reported the same death toll, adding that several other displaced people were wounded or unaccounted for.

Other late-night Russian strikes targeted the town of Ariha, south of Idlib city, the correspondent and the Observatory said.

Jihadist group HTS, led by Syria's former Al-Qaeda affiliate, controls swathes of Idlib province as well as parts of the adjacent Latakia, Hama and Aleppo provinces.

Just hours earlier, Russian air strikes targeting a rebel base north of Idlib city killed three members of HTS, while seven other fighters and five civilians were wounded, according to the Britain-based Observatory, which has a network of sources inside Syria.

HTS regularly carries out deadly attacks on soldiers and pro-government forces, and Russian forces have repeatedly struck the Idlib area, with civilians among the recent casualties.

On Monday, Russian air strikes on the outskirts of Idlib city killed 13 HTS fighters and wounded several others.

On August 5, three family members, all civilians, were killed when Russian warplanes struck the outskirts of Idlib, the Observatory said at the time.

Those strikes targeted a former HTS base nearby that the jihadists had abandoned several weeks earlier, it added.

On June 25, Russian air strikes killed at least 13 people including nine civilians in Idlib province.

A member of the Turkistan Islamic Party, a Uyghur-dominated jihadist group, was among the four fighters killed in those strikes, which also wounded at least 30 civilians, the monitor had said.


ADVERTISEMENT




Space News from SpaceDaily.com
NASA Mars Orbiter Captures Volcano Peeking Above Morning Cloud Tops
Unexpected Dust Patterns Found on Uranus Moons Confound Scientists
Earth-based telescopes offer a fresh look at cosmic dawn

24/7 Energy News Coverage
UK nuclear site could leak until 2050s, MPs warn
ABC Solar Marks 25 Years With Grand Opening at AltaSea
UK plans solar 'revolution' for new homes

Military Space News, Nuclear Weapons, Missile Defense
Attacking Iran, Israel brazenly defies 'man of peace' Trump
Rubio warns Iran against targeting US over Israeli strikes
AI-enabled control system helps autonomous drones stay on target in uncertain environments

24/7 News Coverage
If people stopped having babies, how long would it be before humans were all gone?
UK's sunniest spring yields unusually sweet strawberries
Nations call for strong plastics treaty as difficult talks loom



All rights reserved. Copyright Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.