Russian air strikes on Syria killed 18,000 in three years

REBELS DENY PULLING ARMS FROM DEMILITARISED ZONE UNDER TURKEY-RUSSIA DEAL

More than 18,000 people, nearly half of them civilians, have been killed in Russian air strikes on Syria since Moscow began its game-changing intervention three years ago, a monitor said. Russia, a steadfast ally of Syria’s ruling regime, began carrying out bombing raids in the country on September 30, 2015 - more than four years into the devastating conflict.

Since then, they have killed 18,096 people, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. “That number includes 7,988 civilians, or nearly half of the total,” said Observatory chief Rami Abdul Rahman. Another 5,233 Daesh fighters were also killed in Russian strikes, with the rest of the dead including other rebels, Islamists, and extremists, the Britainbased monitor said.

Russia has operated a naval base in Syria’s coastal Tartus province for decades, but expanded its operations to the nearby Hmeimim airbase in 2015. It also has special forces and military police units on the ground in regime-controlled parts of the country.

The air strikes were crucial in helping troops loyal to President Bashar Al Assad retake swathes of the country, including second city Aleppo in 2016 and areas around Damascus, the rural centre, and the south this year alone.

In addition to the Russian and Syrian regime air forces, warplanes from the US-led coalition fighting Daesh have also been carrying out bombing raids on Syria since September 2014.

Last week, the Observatory said that US-led coalition air strikes on Syria had killed more than 3,300 civilians since the alliance began operations against Daesh targets there in 2014.

No pullout of heavy arms

Meanwhile, a Syrian rebel alliance has denied reports it pulled any heavy arms from the country’s north to begin implementing a demilitarisation deal there.

Moscow and Ankara reached a deal earlier this month to create a buffer zone around the opposition stronghold of Idlib that would be free of both extremiists and heavy arms. The National Liberation Front, a pro-Turkey rebel alliance, welcomed the deal, but said yesterday it had not yet moved any heavy arms from the planned zone. “There have been no withdrawals of heavy weapons from any area or any front. This report is denied, completely denied,” NLF spokesman Naji Mustafa told AFP.

The Observatory had earlier said one faction of the NLF began withdrawing its heavy weapons under a TurkishRussian agreement to create a buffer zone in the area. It said Faylaq Al Rahman, whose fighters number between 8,500 and 10,000, were leaving areas in the planned zone on Sunday “with heavy weapons, including tanks and cannons”.

A spokesman for Faylaq Al Rahman also said yesterday it had not moved any forces or arms.