ISIS seizes villages in surprise attack
Militants’ resurgence comes as Moscow backs Assad supporters with airstrikes
BEIRUT— Islamic State militants captured a string of villages near Aleppo Friday in a lightning attack that brought them closer to the prized city in northern Syria, despite a major increase in Russian airstrikes that Moscow insists are targeting the extremists.
The surprise advance that brought the militants to within a few kilometres of Aleppo was the most significant in months, following what has largely been a summer of stalemate in the war against the extremists. The move comes amid a wave of intense Russian airstrikes that have targeted insurgents fighting to topple President Bashar Assad, and a ground offensive by the Syrian army in the country’s central region.
Moscow says it is targeting mainly Islamic State militants, but U.S. officials and Syrian rebels have said the strikes have hit mainstream rebels for the most part and are aimed at shoring up Assad’s embattled government and troops. Many of the rebel groups hit by the Russian strikes are also at war with the Islamic State group.
“Everyone who wants to fight the rebels says that they are coming to fight Daesh while in fact they want to fight the rebels,” said Bahaa al-Halaby, an activist based in the city of Aleppo, using an Arabic acronym for the group.
He said the Russians have not carried out attacks against the Islamic State in Aleppo, which is split between government forces and various insurgent groups. “They are trying to finish off the rebels,” he said.
An international human rights group said Friday that apparent Russian airstrikes on the central town of Talbiseh on Sept. 30 killed at least 17 civilians and wounded 72, adding that the incident should be investigated for possible violations of the laws of war. Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported that local groups operating in the central Homs province said that jets that they believed were Russian conducted strikes on the neighbouring towns of Zaafaraneh and Rastan, killing another17 civilians. HRW said it is still investigating the two attacks.
The Observatory said the extremists’ surprise advance north of Aleppo, which began Thursday night, is the most significant in months. It said the militants seized the villages of Tal Qrah, Tal Sousin and Kfar Qares north of Aleppo, Syria’s largest city and its one-time commercial capital.
The group also seized a former army base known as the Infantry Academy that rebels captured from the Syrian army two years ago.
The base is located 16 kilometres northeast of Aleppo city and 1.6 kilometres away from a governmentheld industrial zone on the northern edge of Aleppo.