Assad’s troops advance on rebels
Russian warships in the Caspian Sea have fired cruise missiles as Syrian government troops launch a ground offensive in central Syria, in the first major combined air-and-ground assault since Moscow began its military campaign in the country last week.
The missiles, launched from a Russian flotilla in the Caspian Sea, travelled 1400 kilometres over ‘‘unpopulated areas’’ to target militants, according to a Russian officer.
The latest developments – exactly a week after Russia began launching air strikes in Syria – add a new layer to the fray in the complex war that has torn this Mideast country apart since 2011.
Moscow has mainly targeted central and northwestern Syria, strategic regions that are the gateway to President Bashar al-Assad’s strongholds in Damascus, and along the Mediterranean coast. But the strikes appear to have given Assad new confidence to try to retake some lost ground.
According to the Syrian official, the government push is concentrated in the adjacent provinces of Hama and Idlib, where rebels have been advancing in the past months.
The Islamic State group is not present in the areas where the fighting is under way.
The new offensive in central Syria and the ensuing clashes with militants, including al Qaeda’s Syrian branch, is the first major ground fighting since Moscow began launching air raids in Syria last week.
The Russian air strikes appear to have emboldened Syrian troops to launch the ground push after suffering a string of setbacks in northwestern Syria over the past few months.
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said Russia was using warships in the Caspian Sea to target the Islamic State group in Syria. Shoigu told Russian President Vladimir Putin that Russia carried out 26 missile strikes from four warships of its Caspian Sea flotilla.
Shoigu insisted that the operation destroyed all the targets and did not launch any strikes upon civilian areas.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the government offensive began on four fronts in the northwestern provinces of Idlib and neighbouring Hama. Observatory director Rami Abdurrahman described it as ‘‘the most intense fighting in months’’.
The leader of a United Statesbacked rebel group, Tajammu Alezzah, confirmed the ground offensive in a text message to the media, claiming there were Russian and Iranian soldiers taking part in the operation.
The rebel group’s commander, Major Jamil al-Saleh, said the offensive, accompanied by air cover and shelling, came from three fronts.
The offensive was targeting the rural part of northern Hama and Idlib, the northwestern province, almost totally controlled by rebel groups, he said.
Activist Ahmad al-Ahmad, in Idlib, said government troops were ‘‘heavily’’ shelling central areas after rebels attacked an army post and destroyed a tank.
Though Islamic State has no presence in the areas hit, al Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria, the Nusra Front, is active in central and northern parts of the country, as are the Western-backed rebels.