Suspected Russian raids kill 36 in Syria
Arab League backs UN plan to end war
BEIRUT, Dec 20, (AFP): Suspected Russian air strikes killed 36 people in Idlib province of northwest Syria Sunday, a monitor said, as the Arab League welcomed a UN-backed roadmap to end the country’s conflict.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said most of those killed in the raids — “probably Russian” — on positions held by the Army of Conquest rebel group were fighters.
The Army of Conquest is a coalition that includes al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate Al-Nusra Front and Islamist groups such as its ally Ahrar al-Sham.
Russia began a wave of air strikes on Sept 30 targeting the Islamic State jihadist group (IS) and what Moscow calls “terrorist” organisations.
But the West and Syrian rebel movements accuse the Russians of focusing their raids more on groups battling Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian is due in Moscow on Monday for talks with Russian officials to coordinate efforts to defeat IS.
Elsewhere in Syria, proregime forces on Sunday seized a strategic rebel stronghold in the northern province of Aleppo, the Observatory and Syrian media reported.
“The army and loyalist forces now control Khan Tuman and surrounding farms in Aleppo province,” the official SANA news agency reported.
Khan Tuman was the scene of fierce clashes between loyalist forces, including fighters of Lebanon’s Shiite militia Hezbollah, and Islamist rebels, said the Observatory.
Abdel Rahman said the battle for the key site saw “heavy bombardments and at least 40 raids by Syrian and Russian warplanes on the region”.
The Britain-based monitoring group said 16 Islamists were killed but it did not have details of casualties on the government side.
Since mid-October, with air support from the Russians, Syrian forces have recaptured several areas in the north from Islamist forces including AlNusra Front.
Human Rights Watch charged on Sunday that government forces and their
Russian allies have been making “extensive” use of cluster munitions.
The New York-based rights watchdog said in a report that it had documented the use of cluster munitions against rebels on 20 occasions since Sept 30.
HRW “collected detailed information about attacks in nine locations that have killed at least 35 civilians, including five women and 17 children, and injured dozens”, the report said.
On the political front, the Arab League welcomed the roadmap to end the Syrian war and vowed to support international efforts to implement a ceasefire.
The roadmap, approved unanimously by the UN Security Council on Friday, foresees talks between the rebels and the regime, and a rapid truce.
“The unanimous adoption of the UN Security Council resolution offers a chance for the first time to find a serious solution to the crisis in Syria,” said Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi.
In violence inside the Syrian capital, nine people were wounded when a rocket hit a bus Sunday in the residential district of Mazzeh, state media said.
On the outskirts of Damascus, a top militant of Lebanon’s Hezbollah group which supports Assad was killed in an alleged Israeli air raid which struck his home on Saturday night.
The target, Samir Kantar, was notorious for the April 1979 murder of three Israelis, including a four-year-old girl.
Support
The Arab League welcomed Sunday a UN-backed roadmap to end the Syrian war and vowed to support international efforts to implement a ceasefire.
The resolution, approved unanimously by the UN Security Council on Friday, foresees talks between the rebels and the regime, and a rapid truce.
“The unanimous adoption of the UN Security Council resolution offers a chance for the first time to find a serious solution to the crisis in Syria,” Nabil alArabi, head of the Cairo-based Arab League, said in a statement.
He said the Arab diplomatic body was ready to continue co-ordinating with the