Dozens of Turkish-backed Syrian fighters die in airstrike
BEIRUT — An airstrike on a rebel training camp in northwestern Syria on Monday killed more than 50 Turkish-backed fighters and wounded nearly as many, in one of the heaviest blows to the opposition’s strongest groups, a spokesman and a war monitor said.
The opposition blamed Russia for the strike and vowed to retaliate for the attack on Faylaq al-Sham.
Russia and Turkey support opposite sides in Syria’s conflict, but have worked together to maintain a cease-fire in the last enclave of Syria’s rebels, centered on the province of Idlib. The attack comes as relations between the two countries have shown signs of strain over Turkey’s increased military involvement in a region stretching from Syria to the Caucasus and the Mediterranean.
There was no immediate comment from Russia or Turkey on the strike.
Youssef Hammoud, a spokesman for the Syrian opposition, said the airstrike targeted a military training camp for Faylaq al-Sham in Idlib. Faylaq al-Sham is the largest and one of the best disciplined and trained of the Turkish-backed armed factions in the opposition. Its fighters provide security for Turkish troops deployed in northwest Syria.
The Russian state-funded news agency Sputnik said the Syrian air force was behind the strike. It called out Faylaq al-Sham as the largest Syrian group to dispatch fighters to foreign conflicts.
Turkey firmly backs Azerbaijan in that country’s conflict with Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, sending it weapons and reportedly deploying allied Syrian fighters there. Ankara denies that claim, but Moscow has criticized it for sending fighters. Russia has military agreements with Armenia but is also trying to maintain warm ties with Azerbaijan.
Turkey and Russia also back rival sides in Libya, where they have sent Syrian and Russian fighters as proxies. In Syria, Russia is a close ally of President Bashar Assad and its military backing helped tip the 9-year-old civil war in his favor.
Monday’s strike was the deadliest in Idlib since the Turkish-Russian-brokered truce there went into effect this year — and it raises fears that truce could further fray.
Hammoud said more than 50 fighters were killed. The National Front for Liberation — the umbrella group of Turkish-allied factions — said only that a large number died, without specifying.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the war in Syria, put the toll at 78 fighters dead and nearly 90 wounded. Syrian rebel groups vowed to retaliate.
“We, the factions of the National Front for Liberation, will respond to these violations,” said Naji al-Mustafa, another spokesman for the Front, threatening to target government and Russian positions. He called the strike a “crime” by Russia.
Hundreds of Idlib residents took part in a collective funeral for 10 of the fighters Monday, some firing their guns in the air.
The Faylaq al-Sham camp, at Jebel al-Dweila not far from the Turkish border, was hosting training sessions for new recruits when it was struck, according to a war monitor and another opposition spokesman. Leaders of the camp were among those killed, according to Hammoud.
Journalists or activists in the area were not allowed near the camp and the extent of the damage was not immediately known.
Rescue efforts were still underway, the Observatory said.
A hospital near the explosion was overwhelmed with the casualties and was forced to send wounded and dead to other facilities. A doctor in Idlib city said the city’s central hospital, more than 15 miles from the camp, received two bodies and 11 wounded. All the casualties were fighters, the doctor said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to discuss the attack on an armed group.
One Facebook group called on Idlib residents to check with hospitals in the city if they are missing relatives, a clear indication many remained unidentified.