Syrian air defences respond to spate of ‘enemy attacks’
Syrian air defences engaged an “enemy target” near the border with Lebanon, west of Damascus, on Friday night.
It “penetrated airspace above the area of Deir Al Ashair in the Damascus countryside”, state news agency Sana reported yesterday.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said air defences reacted to “targets aiming at regime and loyalist positions” near the Lebanese border. The UK-based war monitor did not say who was responsible for the attack.
Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which has been backing the Syrian government, operates across the mountainous area between Lebanon and Syria.
The government often accuses Israel of targeting its military positions. Israel has carried out raids in recent years.
Last week, Syrian air defences confronted another enemy attack west of Damascus. The Observatory said it was unable to determine who was responsible.
Last month, Syria accused Israel of bombing a military post in the northern province of Aleppo, where the Observatory reported at least nine pro-government fighters were killed.
It also reported that Russia’s main airbase in Syria, in the stronghold of Latakia on the north-western coast, came under a second day of drone attacks on Friday.
The Observatory reported that this was the 18th drone attack on the airfield this year.
It came 36 hours after a drone attack on the government’s Al Shayrat airbase near Homs in western Syria. There is no indication of casualties or damage to the facility.
Meanwhile, government air strikes on opposition-held territory in northwest Syria killed at least 22 people, the Observatory said on Friday, as the UN’s children’s agency warned a new battle could affect the lives of one million children.
Government forces unleashed a wave of strikes across Idlib, Aleppo and Hama provinces after days of building up ground forces at the edge of opposition territory, the Observatory said.
It said 14 people were killed in the Aleppo province and eight in the province of Idlib.
Fears have been building for days of a government offensive against the last major bastion for the opposition, centred in the Idlib province and along the edges of Aleppo and Hama.
Food, water and medicine are already in short supply in the largely rural province, which is now home to more than one million Syrians displaced by government offensives in other parts of the country, Unicef said.
About 350,000 children, many in refugee camps, are at risk of displacement in the event of war, the agency said.
Unicef said that across Idlib “there are more than one million children, exhausted from war, and fearful of uncertainty, violence and further displacement”.
The White Helmets rescue volunteers said in an initial report on the air strikes that at least one child had been killed. They said government aircraft bombed homes in the towns of Khan Sheikhoun, Altmana, Sukayk and Alteh.
Syria’s government dropped leaflets across the province on Thursday, urging residents to reconcile with its rule.
Officials warned that government forces will take back the province by force if necessary.
The Observatory also reported that the Turkish-backed Syria Liberation Front and extremist Jabhat Al Nusra groups had held at least 250 people for supporting reconciliation with the government in recent days.
It said the government was moving ground forces to the north to prepare for an all-out assault, including tanks and artillery. There are 2.9 million people living in Idlib and surrounding opposition-held areas, the UN estimates.
It has appealed to Turkey to open its border to refugees, should the Syrian government decide to attack the province, Mr Egeland said.
Turkey, a sponsor of rebels in northern Syria, already hosts about 3.5 million Syrian refugees, more than any nation. It has also established 12 monitoring posts in Idlib and stationed 1,000 troops in the province.
UN officials have voiced fears for civilians as the Syrian government gets ready to battle for Idlib