Russian strikes kill 34 civilians in Syria
BEIRUT (AFP) — Russian airstrikes Sunday killed 34 civilians on ferries fleeing violence in Syria’s eastern province of Deir Ezzor, where jihadists face separate assaults by U.S.-backed forces and Russian-backed government troops, a monitor said.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor initially reported 21 deaths but later raised the toll to 34, saying that “more bodies have been found in the river” Euphrates.
Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said nine children were among those killed fleeing fighting and that “dozens” of people were wounded in the strikes.
He said the raids targeted “more than 40 ferries” that had left Al-Boulil town southeast of Deir Ezzor city for the eastern shore of the river.
The Observatory relies on a network of sources inside Syria, and says it determines whose planes carry out raids according to type, location, flight patterns and munitions used.
Moscow intervened in Syria in September 2015 in support of its ally President Bashar al-Assad.
Sunday’s reported raids came as Syrian troops with Russian air cover pressed an offensive against Islamic State group jihadists across Deir Ezzor province.
On Saturday, government forces broke a nearly three-year jihadist siege of a Syrian airbase on the southern edges of Deir Ezzor city, the provincial capital.
Assad’s troops advanced further Sunday, capturing Mount Tharda west of the military airport from IS as well as another mountain overlooking the city, the Observatory said.
IS holdouts were still entrenched in southern parts of the city, the monitor said.
The army’s advances in the oil-rich province come as U.S.-backed forces press their own assault on IS in Deir Ezzor.
The province borders Iraq and is a strategic prize for both the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) alliance and government troops.
The SDF announced on Saturday it had begun clearing IS from areas east of the Euphrates, which cuts diagonally across the province.