Air strikes hit Syria’s Idlib, about 30 dead
Assad views Trump’s position as ‘promising’ in fight against Islamic State
AMMAN (Reuters) – At least 30 people died in air strikes on the rebel-held Syrian city of Idlib on Tuesday, in some of the heaviest raids there in months, witnesses and rescue workers said.
Around eight attacks by what witnesses believed to be Russian jets wounded scores of people and leveled several multistory buildings in residential areas of the northwestern city, they added.
Russia’s Defense Ministry later said media reports that its planes had bombed Idlib were not true, Interfax news agency reported.
Two rescue workers said the death toll was at least 30. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 26 people were killed, and casualties were expected to rise as rescue workers searched for bodies under the rubble.
Video footage by activists on social media showed civilians, including young children, being treated in a main city hospital where the injured had been rushed for treatment.
“We are still pulling bodies from the rubble,” said Issam al-Idlibi, a volunteer civil-defense worker.
The extent of the damage and the debris bore the hallmarks of a Russian attack, two witnesses said.
Russian planes have targeted a number of towns and villages in the area since entering the Syrian conflict in September 2015 to back ally President Bashar Assad.
But activists and residents also said there had been a reduction of Russian strikes in Idlib province since a Turkish-Russian brokered cessation of hostilities late December.
Planes from the US-led coalition have also launched a number of attacks in the rural province, a major stronghold of jihadists, many of them formerly affiliated to al-Qaida.
Idlib’s population has been swollen by thousands of Syrian fighters and their families evacuated from villages and towns around Damascus and Aleppo city, which was retaken by the government in recent months.
Separately, at least four people were killed in air strikes by unknown jets in the town of Arbin in rebel-held Eastern Ghouta, northeast of the capital. The Syrian army and pro-government militias have been seeking in recent days to gain new ground there.
Assad said US President Donald Trump prioritizing the fight against jihadists led by Islamic State was promising, although it was too early to expect any practical steps, state news agency SANA reported on Tuesday.
The Kremlin, Assad’s most powerful ally, said Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed setting up “genuine coordination” in the fight against Islamic State and “other terrorist groups” in Syria during a phone call last month.
Assad was quoted by SANA as telling a group of Belgian reporters that Trump’s position was promising. “I believe this is promising but we have to wait, and it’s too early to expect anything practical,” he said. Assad was also quoted as saying that US-Russian cooperation in stepping up the fight against the insurgents would have positive repercussions.
Trump has previously indicated he might cut US support for Syrian rebels that have been fighting Assad, and that he could cooperate with Russia in the fight against Islamic State in Syria.
Trump has made defeating Islamic State a core goal of his presidency and signed an executive order asking the Pentagon, the joint chiefs of staff and other agencies to submit a preliminary plan on how to proceed within 30 days.