Russia says ‘moratorium’ on Aleppo air strikes to continue

Saudi King reiterates political solution in Syria

MOSCOW/BEIRUT, Oct 25, (Agencies): Russia said on Tuesday it would extend a moratorium on air strikes on Syria’s Aleppo into a ninth day, but a monitor and a civil defence official said that rebel-held parts of the divided city had been struck in recent days.

Defence ministry spokesman Major-General Igor Konashenkov said Russian and Syrian planes had not even approached, let alone bombed, the devastated city since last Tuesday when Russia suspended air strikes ahead of a pause in hostilities.

That moratorium on air strikes was being extended, Sergei Rudskoi, a defence ministry official, said separately on Tuesday, without specifying for how long.

Rudskoi said that meant Russian and Syrian planes would continue to stay out of a 10 km (6-mile) zone around Aleppo.

But the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said air strikes had resumed since the lull in fighting ended on Saturday, focusing on major front lines, including in the city’s southwest. There had been no civilian deaths from air strikes inside eastern Aleppo, however, the monitor said.

Ibrahim Abu al-Laith, a civil defence official in eastern Aleppo, also said air strikes and shelling had hit the rebel-held half of the city near front lines in the past week.

“There was artillery shelling ... and there were planes, the city was hit by several strikes,” he said.

On Tuesday, districts outside the city to the west were hit by air strikes, the Observatory said. Air strikes had continued outside Aleppo during the ceasefire.

Russia has been the Syrian government’s most powerful ally against rebels in a civil war now well into its sixth year.

Aleppo, Syria’s most populous city before the war erupted, is now divided into government- and rebel-held areas. Intense bombardment by Syrian and Russian warplanes has reduced the rebel-controlled east to ruins.

Russia has accused rebels of thwarting its efforts to evacuate civilians, saying they open fire on those wanting to leave, but rebel groups say Syrian government forces and allies have been shelling and sniping around the corridors.

Ceasefire

Rebels did not accept the ceasefire, which they said did nothing to alleviate the situation of those who chose to remain in eastern Aleppo, and was part of a government policy to purge cities of political opponents.

Rudskoi said around 50 women and children had managed to leave Aleppo late on Monday despite the dangers and were escorted by Russian military officers.

He said Russia was ready to help broker further ceasefires to allow wounded civilians to be evacuated.

Some Western countries have repeatedly accused Russia of killing civilians during its air campaign in Aleppo. Moscow denies this, saying it targets rebel groups inside the city.

On Tuesday, it said allegations by rebels and rescuers that it had bombed the Sakhour hospital in eastern Aleppo earlier this month were false and urged the world to focus instead on what it said was the killing of civilians in neighbouring Iraq in air strikes carried out by the US-led coalition.

Meanwhile, Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud on Tuesday reaffirmed the Kingdom’s support of the political solution to the current Syrian crisis in line with Geneva 1 statement.

The Saudi King made the remark during a meeting with visiting General Coordinator of Supreme Commission for Negotiations of the Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces Riad Hijab, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.

He also reiterated the Kingdom’s stand by the Syrian people in order to achieve their aspirations and alleviate the humanitarian suffering, the SPA added.

During the meeting, they also discussed the latest developments in wartorn Syria, the agency said.

In other news, Syria’s Kurds fear a “stab in the back” by Turkey if they join a push to drive Islamic State from its Syrian capital of Raqqa, one of their chief political leaders told Reuters on Tuesday.

The remarks by Salih Muslim, joint chairman of the main Syrian Kurdish party, the Democratic Union Party (PYD), underscore how friction between Turkey and Syrian Kurds threatens to undermine efforts to combat their mutual enemy Islamic State.

“It is very important that Raqqa is liberated. But one point which is bothering us is that, if we go toward Raqqa, we will be stabbed from the back,” he said.

He did not know when an offensive on Raqqa might begin and called on the United States to ensure Turkey would not strike against Kurdish areas when it took place.

“Maybe they will try to occupy Kobani or Tel Abyad,” he said, referring to Turkish forces and two large Syrian towns in Kurdish-controlled areas near the border.

Kurdish militia have played a big role over the past year in the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a USbacked umbrella group, as it has seized large areas of territory from Islamic State, laying the ground for an assault on Raqqa.

However, Turkey’s intervention in Syria in August in support of rebel groups fighting under the Free Syrian Army (FSA) banner has complicated that equation, leading to clashes between them and Kurdish groups allied to the SDF.

Ankara’s intervention was aimed to both drive Islamic State from positions it had used to shell Turkish towns and to stop two Kurdish enclaves from physically uniting, thereby creating a de facto Kurdish mini-state along Turkey’s frontier.

During the weekend, Turkeybacked FSA groups and Syrian Kurdish fighters allied to the SDF fought near the Islamic State-held town of alBab, north of Aleppo. Turkey has also warned Kurdish fighters to retreat from around Manbij.

Turkey believes the Kurdish YPG militia, allied to the PYD and the strongest element of the SDF, is closely tied to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has fought an insurgency against Ankara for three decades.

The YPG and PKK both deny having direct ties, although both say they are part of a wider confederation of similarly minded Kurdish parties in different countries.