Syria extends major offensive in nation’s west

‘ Russian strikes aiding an extended military operation’

Beirut/ Damascus, Oct. 8: Syrian troops and allied militia backed by a fresh wave of Russian airstrikes and cruise missiles fired from warships attacked rebel forces on Thursday as the government extended a major offensive to recapture territory in the west of the country.

Rebel advances in western Syria earlier in 2015 had threatened the coastal region vital to President Bashar al- Assad’s control of the area and prompted Russia’s intervention on their ally’s side last week.

In a further show of force, the Russian defence ministry said missiles fired from its ships in the Caspian Sea hit weapons factories, arms dumps, command centres and training camps supporting ISIS. The Russian defence ministry said its Air Force hit 27 ISIS targets, including a number of training sites, overnight in the provinces of Homs, Hama and Raqqa, Interfax news agency reported.

Ground forces loyal to the Syrian government targeted insurgents in the Ghab Plain area in the west of the country, with heavy barrages of surface- to- surface missiles as Russian warplanes bombed from above, according to the Britishbased Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and a rebel fighting there.

It said rebels had shot down a helicopter in Hama province in western Syria. It was unclear if it was Syrian or Russian.

Meanwhile, Syria’s ChiefofStaff on Thursday in a rare televised speech, Gen. Ali Ayoub said the Russian strikes have facilitated an expanded military operation to eliminate “terrorists”

Ground forces loyal to the Syrian government targeted insurgents in the Ghab Plain area in the west of the country, with heavy barrages of surface- tosurface missiles as Russian warplanes bombed from above

— a term the Syrian government uses to refer to all armed opposition to President Bashar Assad.

The Syrian ground push got a boost after Russian warships launched the cruise missiles into Syria on Wednesday, bringing a major new military might into the war on the heels of Russian airstrikes that began last week.

The cruise missiles hit the provinces of Raqqa and Aleppo in the north and also Idlib province in the northwest, Russian officials said. ISIS has strongholds in Raqqa and Aleppo, while Syria’s Al Qaeda branch, the Nusra Front, has a strong presence in Idlib. “After the Russian airstrikes, which reduced the fighting ability of Daesh and other terrorist groups, the Arab Syrian armed forces kept the military initiative and formed armed ground troops, the most important of which is the fourth legion- raid," Gen. Ayoub said, using the Arabic acronym for ISIS.

Moscow insists it is only striking militants but the Britain- based the Syrian Observatory said Russian airstrikes in Idlib killed at least seven civilians on Wednesday.

— Reuters, AP