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Russian warplane shot down near Turkey-Syria border

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Warplane crashes in village in Latakia province in Syria and two pilots seen ejecting from the aircraft.

The alleged violation by the Russian warplane according to Turkish authorities

The alleged violation by the Russian warplane according to Turkish authorities

by Al Jazeera

Turkey says it has shot down a Russian-made warplane on the Syrian border for violating Turkish airspace.

Two Turkish officials told Al Jazeera the plane was shot down on Tuesday by the Turkish military according to the rules of engagement.

Reports said the plane crashed in Syrian territory in Latakia’s Yamadi village.

A Turkish military statement said the plane violated Turkish airspace in Hatay province and was warned “10 times in five minutes”.

“Our two F-16 planes on air patrol duty intervened … on November 24, 2015, 9:24am, according to the rules of engagement,” the statement said.

Rebel forces have told Al Jazeera that bodies of both pilots have been recovered. It is also reported that Russian helicopters were searching for the pilots close to the Turkish-Syrian border.

The Turkish president’s office identified the warplane as Russian-made and said it was warned before being shot down, according to the semi-official Anadolu agency.

The Russian defence ministry acknowledged that an Su-24 fighter jet crashed in Syria as a result of fire from the ground.

The ministry was quoted by TASS Russian News Agency as saying: “A probe is in progress into the circumstances of the Russian plane crash.”

It said the plane had stayed within Syrian airspace and that “objective monitoring data confirm this”.

President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman called the downing of the warplane a “very serious incident”, but said it was too early to draw conclusions.

Al Jazeera’s Hashem Ahelbarra, reporting from Gaziantep, said the fighter jet was shot down near the mountains of Antakya.

“What we know so far is that a plane was shot down on Syria’s border with Turkey, near the mountains of Antakya, which is a scene of a lot of violence of late.

“Witnesses saw two pilots ejecting from the plane.”

Turkey’s Dogan news agency said witnesses reported that the warplane crashed over tents built in Yamadi village and that the pilots bailed out with the help of parachutes.

Ahmed Davutoglu, Turkey’s prime minister, has ordered the foreign ministry to consult NATO, the UN and related countries on the developments, his office said in a statement on Tuesday.

Last month, Davutoglu said Russia had described its warplane’s violation of Turkey’s airspace as a “mistake”.

A Russian aircraft had entered Turkish airspace near the Syrian border, prompting Turkey to scramble two F-16 jets to intercept it and summon Russia’s ambassador in protest.

“The Turkish armed forces are clearly instructed. Even if it is a flying bird it will be intercepted,” Davutoglu had said.

He warned Turkey’s enemies and allies not to infringe on its airspace but he dismissed the notion of tensions with Russia.

Former drone pilots to Obama: Civilian killings driving ‘terrorism, instability’

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Air Force whistleblowers say US drone program “is one of the most devastating driving forces for terrorism and destabilization around the world.”

Graffiti denouncing strikes by US drones in Yemen. (Photo: Khaled Abdullah/Reuters)

Graffiti denouncing strikes by US drones in Yemen. (Photo: Khaled Abdullah/Reuters)

by Lauren McCauley, Common Dreams

Four former U.S. Air Force drone operators issued a public letter on Wednesday warning that the United States’ ongoing targeted killing program “is one of the most devastating driving forces for terrorism and destabilization around the world.”

The letter (pdf), addressed to U.S. President Barack Obama, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, and CIA Chief John Brennan accuses the administration of fueling “tragedies such as the attacks in Paris” while “lying publicly about the effectiveness of the drone program.”

“We came to the realization that the innocent civilians we were killing only fueled the feelings of hatred that ignited terrorism and groups like ISIS,” the whistleblowers wrote, “while also serving as a fundamental recruitment tool similar to Guantanamo Bay.”

According to Guardian reporters Ed Pilkington and Ewan MacAskill, who broke the story, the servicemen have “more than 20 years of experience between them operating military drones.” In the letter, the men say they all “succumbed to PTSD” and were subsequently “cut loose by the same government we gave so much to—sent out in the world without adequate medical care, reliable public health services, or necessary benefits.”

Facing possible persecution for speaking out, the men are being represented by attorney Jesselyn Radack, director of national security and human rights at the nonprofit ExposeFacts. Radack says this letter marks the “first time we’ve had so many people speaking out together about the drone program.”

The full text of the letter is below:

Dear President Obama, Secretary Carter and Director Brennan: 

We are former Air Force service members. We joined the Air Force to protect American lives  and to protect our Constitution. We came to the realization that the innocent civilians we were killing  only fueled the feelings of hatred that ignited terrorism and groups like ISIS, while also serving as a  fundamental recruitment tool similar to Guantanamo Bay. This administration and its predecessors  have built a drone program that is one of the most devastating driving forces for terrorism and  destabilization around the world. 

When the guilt of our roles in facilitating this systematic loss of innocent life became too much, all of us succumbed to PTSD. We were cut loose by the same government we gave so much to ­­ sent  out in the world without adequate medical care, reliable public health services, or necessary benefits.  Some of us are now homeless. Others of us barely make it. 

We witnessed gross waste, mismanagement, abuses of power, and our country’s leaders lying  publicly about the effectiveness of the drone program. We cannot sit silently by and witness tragedies  like the attacks in Paris, knowing the devastating effects the drone program has overseas and at home.  Such silence would violate the very oaths we took to support and defend the Constitution. 

We request that you consider our perspective, though perhaps that request is in vain given the  unprecedented prosecution of truth­tellers who came before us like Chelsea Manning, Julian Assange,  and Edward Snowden. For the sake of this country, we hope it is otherwise.

Sincerely,

Brandon Bryant

Staff Sergeant

MQ­1B Predator Sensor Operator

SERE Instructor Trainee

USAF Joint Special Operations Command

3rd Special Operations Squadron

Disabled Iraq and Afghanistan Veteran

Founder of Project RED HAND

Cian Westmoreland

Senior Airman

RF Transmissions Systems

USAF CENTCOM

73rd Expeditionary Air Control Squadron

Disabled Afghanistan Veteran

Project RED HAND’s Sustainable Technology Director

Stephen Lewis

Senior Airman

MQ­1B Predator Sensor Operator

USAF Joint Special Operations Command

3rd Special Operations Squadron

Iraq and Afghanistan Veteran

Michael Haas

Senior Airman

MQ­1B Predator Sensor Operator Instructor

USAF Air Combat Command

15th Reconnaissance Squadron

Iraq and Afghanistan Veteran

‘Gasoline on the fire’: Obama orders ground troops To Syria

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Expanded military footprint will include Special Ops forces inside Syria and expanded ground operations in Iraq

"We should know by now that the first law of military conflicts is escalation," said Jon Rainwater of Peace Action. "That’s why sending these troops into battle should trouble all Americans. With the 'no boots on the ground' promise broken there’s no telling how many U.S. troops will ultimately be sent to Iraq and Syria." (Photo: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)

“We should know by now that the first law of military conflicts is escalation,” said Jon Rainwater of Peace Action. “That’s why sending these troops into battle should trouble all Americans. With the ‘no boots on the ground’ promise broken there’s no telling how many U.S. troops will ultimately be sent to Iraq and Syria.” (Photo: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)

by Jon Queally, Common Dreams

In a move that critics says fulfills long-held warnings of “mission creep” and amount to throwing “gasoline on a fire,” the Obama administration on Friday announced that U.S. ground troops will now be deployed inside Syria.

In strategic leaks to various media outlets, the Pentagon made clear the president’s plan to send approximately 50 Special Operations soldiers inside the war-torn country. Reports also note that expanded ground operations will also be taking place in neighboring Iraq.

Unnamed U.S. officials reportedly “stressed” to Reuters that the new boots-on-the-ground in Syria were “not meant to engage in front-line combat but rather to advise and assist moderate rebels.” One official told Reuters the key role of the troops would be “logistical” and designed, the news agency reported, to “ensure that weapons and other supplies are delivered to the moderate forces whom the United States supports.”

The news was described as “predictable as it is disappointing” by the U.S. antiwar group Peace Action.

“We should know by now that the first law of military conflicts is escalation,” said Jon Rainwater, a spokesperson for the group. “That’s why sending these troops into battle should trouble all Americans.  With the ‘no boots on the ground’ promise broken there’s no telling how many U.S. troops will ultimately be sent to Iraq and Syria.”

An official announcement from the White House or the Pentagon is expected later on Friday.

According to CNN:

The deployment of U.S. Special Operations forces is the most significant escalation of the American military campaign against ISIS to date.

The U.S. Special Operations forces will first be deployed to northern Syria to help coordinate local ground forces and U.S.-led coalition efforts to fight ISIS, the senior administration official said.

The U.S. will also boost its military footprint in confronting ISIS in Syria by deploying A-10 and F-15 fighter jets to an airbase in Turkey. And the U.S. is also eying the establishment of a Special Forces task force in Iraq to boost U.S. efforts to target ISIS and its leaders. President Barack Obama has also authorized enhancing military aid to Jordan and Lebanon to help counter ISIS.

The U.S. has bombed targets in Syria since September 2014 without stopping ISIS, and it has largely failed in a mission to recruit and train moderate rebels in Syria to take on the terror group. In recent months, the U.S. has also bolstered its aid to local forces, air-dropping weapons, ammunition and other supplies to rebel forces inside Syria.

The announcement for military escalation comes as Russia, the U.S., and other regional powers, including Iran, met in Vienna, Austria to initiate a new round of diplomatic efforts aimed at ending Syria’s civil war and countering the rise of the Islamic State in both Iraq and Syria.

Writing for The Intercept, journalist Nick Turse writes that while the deployment is being “portrayed by the administration as an intensification of the current strategy and enhancing ‘efforts that are already working,'” the order is a “clear escalation of the conflict for the president who has previously said, ‘I will not put American boots on the ground in Syria.'”

Since Obama first announced the bombing campaign in Iraq and Syria in 2014, critics have warned that such tactics would likely lead to “mission creep” in the two countries. As the number of troops in Iraq has steadily grown over the last year and a half, this will be the first acknowledged presence of U.S. soldiers in Syria—a country against which the U.S. has not officially declared war.

Investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill was among the immediate critics, offering this sarcastic tweet following Friday’s announcement:

“Over a year into the U.S.-led bombing campaign what have we accomplished?” asked Rainwater. “The United States has spent over $4.75 billion on over 6,059 airstrikes in Iraq and Syria.  Watching the tragic refugee crisis spreading, we know that more bombing isn’t making the Syrian people any safer.  And as the United States drops thousands of bombs, angering thousands of people in two Middle Eastern nations, it’s not making the American people any safer either.  On the contrary, a U.S.-led attack in Syria, with the inevitable civilian casualties, strengthens recruitment for ISIS.  Adding U.S. ground troops is just throwing gasoline on the fire.  Instead, we need sustained diplomacy to end the Syrian civil war and we need to significantly increase humanitarian aid for the victims of the conflict.”

Meanwhile, Peter Van Buren, a retired 24-year veteran of State Department and sharp critic of U.S. foreign policy in the region, said on Friday that President Obama has much to answer for now that he has betrayed earlier and repeated vows not to expand military operations in Syria and Iraq.

“In August 2014,” writes Van Buren, Obama told the nation we needed to re-intervene in Iraq “on a humanitarian mission to save the Yazidis. No boots on the ground, a simple act of humanness that only the United States could conduct, and then leave. We believed. It was a lie.”

Now, Van Buren continues, we are “being told by that same president that Americans will again fight on the ground in Iraq, and Syria, and that Americans have and will die. He says that this is necessary to protect us, because if we do not defeat Islamic State over there, they will come here, to what we now call without shame or irony The Homeland.”

But serious questions remain, he says, and the U.S. public deserves answers and a sensible explanation. “We want to believe, Mr. President. We want to know it is not a lie. So please address us, explain why what you are doing in [Iraq and Syria]. Tell us why we should believe you — this time — because history says you lie.”

Syria’s Assad in surprise visit to Moscow

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President Assad visits Russian President Putin, believed to be his first trip abroad since the start of the war in 2011.

assad-putin

by Al Jazeera

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad flew into Moscow on Tuesday for a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, in what is believed to be his first trip abroad since start of the war in 2011.

The leaders discussed their joint military campaign against rebels in Syria, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday, calling the meeting a “working visit”.

The Syrian presidency confirmed that Assad and Putin held three meetings in which Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Defence Minister Sergey Shoygu were present.

After the meetings, Putin said he was hopeful that a solution may be reached for the war in Syria, where Russia has been carrying out air strikes since the end of September.

“We assume that a long-term solution may be reached on the basis of the latest military developments and political process with participation from all political, ethnic and religious groups,” Putin said.

“This decision can be made only by the Syrian people. Syria is a friendly country. And we are ready to support it not only militarily but politically as well.”

It appears the Kremlin waited for the Syrian leader to return home before breaking the news of the one-day visit.

Political steps

The Syrian leader stressed the importance of “further political steps,” according to a Kremlin statement.

He thanked Putin for his decision to launch its air campaign in Syria on September 30, Russia’s first military foray outside the former Soviet Union since its occupation of Afghanistan in 1979.

“I need to say that the political steps which Russia has taken since the start of the crisis prevented the events in Syria from developing along a more tragic scenario,” Assad said in quotes released by the Kremlin.

“Terrorism which has now spread through the region would have consumed much larger areas and would have spread throughout much more territory if it were not for your actions and your decisions,” he said in comments translated into Russian.

About 250,000 people have been killed since the conflict first began in March 2011, and half the population has been made homeless.

Putin said it was the Syrian people that should decide the fate of their country.

“At the end of the day a long-term settlement can be achieved on the basis of a political process with the participation of all political forces, ethnic and religious groups,” the Kremlin strongman said.

“And ultimately, the final word no doubt should rest solely with the Syrian people.”

‘Assad’s departure needed’

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Wednesday said a transition was needed in Syria which guaranteed the departure of Assad.

Davutoglu said there was no change in Turkey’s position that Assad’s government had lost legitimacy.

He was responding to questions from reporters after senior government officials said on Tuesday that Ankara was ready to accept a political transition in which Assad remains in symbolic power for six months before leaving office.

‘Dozens of ISIL fighters killed’ in air strike in Syria

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At least 40 rebels killed after their convoy comes under attack by unidentified jets in Hama, monitoring group says.

The Syrian government has intensified bombing of rebel-controlled areas since Russia began air campaign on September 30 [Reuters]

The Syrian government has intensified bombing of rebel-controlled areas since Russia began air campaign on September 30 [Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

At least 40 fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) have been killed in an air strike on their convoy in the Syrian province of Hama, a UK-based monitoring group has said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Sunday that unidentified warplanes hit the 16-vehicle motorcade overnight on Sunday in Hama province.

The Observatory, which monitors the war in Syria and has a network of sources on the ground, was not immediately able to say whether the raids were carried out by Russian warplanes or Syrian regime ones.

“But they don’t belong to the coalition led by Washington,” Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman told the AFP news agency.

Rahman said that the convoy was hit as it was heading from the self-declared ISIL capital of Raqqa in northern Syria to the Hama countryside.

Russia, a key ally of the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad, has been carrying out a campaign of air strikes against his opponents since September 30.

Last year, a US-led coalition launched an air campaign against the group which controls swaths of Syria and neighbouring Iraq.

Evidence mounts of Russian cluster-bomb use in Syria

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Rights group backs activists’ accusation of Russia dropping munitions from jets or giving them to Assad government.

Activists say Russian warplanes dropped cluster bombs in the suburbs of Idlib and Hama [Reuters]

Activists say Russian warplanes dropped cluster bombs in the suburbs of Idlib and Hama [Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

Human Rights Watch has echoed accusations by Syrian activists that Russia was behind the use of new advanced cluster munitions in Syria, by dropping them from its warplanes or supplying them to the Assad government.

The New York-based group said that photographs it obtained showed that the cluster munitions were dropped on Kafr Halab, a village southwest of Syria’s second city of Aleppo, on October 4.

“It’s disturbing that yet another type of cluster munition is being used in Syria given the harm they cause to civilians for years to come,” said Nadim Houry, Human Rights Watch’s deputy Middle East director.

“Neither Russia nor Syria should use cluster munitions, and both should join the international ban without delay.”

Russia launched an aerial bombing campaign against opponents of President Bashar al-Assad on September 30.

Cluster munitions contain dozens or hundreds of bomblets and are fired in rockets or dropped from the air.

Widely banned, they spread explosives over large areas and are indiscriminate in nature, often continuing to maim and kill long after the initial attack when previously unexploded bomblets detonate.

Their use in Kafr Halab coincides with the emergence of evidence that they have been used in the provinces of Aleppo, Hama and Idlib since Russia launched its intervention.

Activists’ accounts

Human Rights Watch said it “cannot conclusively determine whether Russian or Syrian forces were responsible for the attack” on October 4.

It noted that neither country had banned their use.

A video posted on October 7 by activists that was reportedly taken in the town of Kafr Zeita, northwest of Hama, shows smoke trails of ground-fired rockets launched from the direction of Jabal Zayn al-Abidin and multiple subsequent explosions of submunitions in the town.

Photographs and a video posted online by local activists in October, with title text that says they were taken at Masaran village in Idlib, shows at least one unexploded AO-2.5RT submunition and the remnants of an RBK-500 canister, which can contain up to 108 submunitions.

Reuters published a photograph taken in Masaran that shows a first responder handling unexploded AO-2.5RT submunitions that local activists told the news agency were used in an attack by the Russian air force on October 7.

Human Rights Watch has documented the use of cluster munitions before in the Syrian conflict, with government forces dropping them from the air since 2012, and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group firing them from rockets since late 2014.

According to RT television network, Russia is using in Syria “time-proven bombs and missiles equipped with state-of-the-art system guidance. Precision weapons are used from high altitudes to exclude encounters with portable air-defence systems”.

Russian President Vladimir Putin told local media that Russia has the will to use these advanced weapons “if it meets the national interests of our state and the Russian people”.

The Syrian conflict, which began as an uprising against Assad’s government in 2011, has killed up to 250,000 people and forced millions to flee the country.

Syria: 300 anti-Assad fighters killed in 24 hours

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Russia killed militants in 60 separate attacks in 24 hours. Image used for illustrative purposes. (Al Bawaba/File)

Russia killed militants in 60 separate attacks in 24 hours. Image used for illustrative purposes. (Al Bawaba/File)

by Andolu Ajansi

Russian airstrikes killed 300 suspected militants in 60 separate attacks in northern Syria within the past 24 hours, the Russian Defense Ministry claimed Friday.

According to state-owned Russia Today, Russia’s Deputy Chief of Staff Lieutenant-General Igor Makushev addressed a briefing in Moscow during which he revealed that Russian air forces carried out 67 sorties that also killed two suspected senior Daesh field commanders.

“A precision hit destroyed the headquarters of Liwa al-Haqq, an Islamist group, which has been fighting the government of Bashar Assad since 2012. Russia said that a radio intercept confirmed the deaths of 200 fighters, and two commanders, who Makushev said belonged to Islamic State [Daesh],” Russia Today said.

Another 100 suspected militants were killed in an airstrike near Aleppo, it added.

The targets were mainly hit in Syrian provinces of Raqqa, Latakia, Hama, Idlib and Aleppo.

Russia began its air campaign in Syria on Sept. 30.

Russian air strikes in Syria cause ‘civilian deaths’

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At least four dead and dozens injured in attacks in Hama province and in areas bordering Idlib province, activists say.

Russia has been carrying out air strikes to support Syrian forces fighting armed groups across the country [Alexander Kots/AP]

Russia has been carrying out air strikes to support Syrian forces fighting armed groups across the country [Alexander Kots/AP]

by Al Jazeera

Civilian deaths are being reported from apparent air strikes by Russian fighter jets in the Syrian province of Hama and in areas bordering the Idlib province.

Russian forces carried out the air strikes on Wednesday morning, in addition to targeting anti-government armed groups with surface-to-surface missiles, said the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

A video of the purported raids uploaded to YouTube by activists said at least four people were killed and dozens injured, and that the death toll was expected to rise.

Al Jazeera could not independently verify the reports of the air strikes.

Meanwhile, Syrian army forces have launched a ground operation in the country’s west, reports say.

The offensive is targeting Khan Shaykhun, a town in Idlib strategically situated on a rebel-controlled route that connects Aleppo and Damascus.

The developments come at a time when Syrian fighters are targeting government forces and pro-regime units in Hama with Grad missiles, the Syrian Observatory said in a statement.

It said it has “no information about casualties” yet.

Russia, a key ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government, started carrying out air strikes in areas across Syria last week.

On Tuesday, Russian jets hit areas under the control of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group in Palmyra and the northern outskirts of Aleppo.

The attacks destroyed 20 vehicles and three weapons depots in ISIL-held Palmyra, Syrian state television said, quoting a military source.

In Aleppo, Russian strikes targeted the towns of al-Bab and Deir Hafer, about 20km east of a military airport currently besieged by ISIL fighters.

Airspace violations

Against this backdrop, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday he was losing patience with Russian violations of his country’s airspace.

Russian officials, for their part, said they would welcome talks with their Turkish counterparts to avoid “misunderstandings”.

“An attack on Turkey means an attack on NATO,” Erdogan said at a Brussels news conference.

NATO has rejected Russia’s explanation that its warplanes violated the airspace of alliance member Turkey by mistake and said Russia was sending more ground troops to Syria.

Jens Stoltenberg, NATO secretary-general, said the alliance had reports of a substantial Russian military build-up in Syria, including ground troops and ships in the eastern Mediterranean.

“I will not speculate on the motives … but this does not look like an accident and we have seen two of them,” he said of the air incursions over Turkey’s border with Syria.

Stoltenberg noted that they “lasted for a long time”.

Russia accused of striking civilian targets in Syria

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Activists say warplanes are targeting civilians in areas under control of Western-backed rebels, a claim Russia denies.

Activists said Russian airstrikes targeted a mosque Idlib's Jisr al-Shoghour, destroying most of it and injuring civilians [Syria Civil Defence]

Activists said Russian airstrikes targeted a mosque Idlib’s Jisr al-Shoghour, destroying most of it and injuring civilians [Syria Civil Defence]

by Basma Atassi, Al Jazeera

Russian warplanes unleashed a new wave of air strikes against opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, amid concerns that many of Moscow’s targets were civilian.

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Paris on Friday to discuss the air raids with his counterpart Francois Hollande, as Moscow maintained that the attacks were aimed at the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group and other “terrorist organisations”.

France is a member of the US-led coalition against ISIL in Syria and Iraq. On Thursday, the countries of the coalition called on Russia to cease its aerial campaign which they said was hitting the Western-backed Syrian rebels and civilians.

“These military actions constitute a further escalation and will only fuel more extremism and radicalisation,” said the coalition, which also includes Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Canada.

Russian jets on Thursday hit areas in the suburbs of Hama and Idlib, all areas under the control of loose coalitions of rebel groups, including the Western-backed Free Syrian Army.

Activists on the ground told Al Jazeera that the majority of the attacks hit civilian targets, a claim that Moscow, a key ally of Assad, denies.

In the Hama suburb of Habeet, an air strike at about 08:30pm local time killed three civilians, including a 5-year-old girl, and injured 12 others, according to opposition activist Hadi al-Abdullah.

“The destruction caused by the strike was massive. A two-storey house was completely flattened to the ground,” he told Al Jazeera.

Earlier at 02:30pm local time, an attack on Jisr al-Shoghour in the northwestern province of Idlib destroyed a mosque and killed two civilians, other activists told Al Jazeera.

In Idlib’s Jabal al-Zawya region, two children were among at least seven civilians killed in suspected Russian air strikes, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The UK-based monitoring group said Russian air strikes on Syria have killed 28 people since they were launched on Wednesday.

‘Information warfare’

Putin rejected allegations that civilians had been killed in Russian raids, dubbing the reports “information warfare”.

Russia’s defence ministry said the air raids were hitting several ISIL targets, including in the group’s self-proclaimed capital, Raqqa.

Both Western officials and activists on the ground said expressed concern that they are attempting to hit opposition rebel fighters.

Both Idlib and Hama have no ISIL presence since January 2014.

The initial Russian strikes on Wednesday hit Talbiseh, a suburb in the central Homs suburb that is under the control of the Free Syrian Army, Ahrar al-Sham rebel group and Faylaq al-Sham group, and the al-Qaeda affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra.

The rebel groups had pushed back ISIL from the suburb six months ago.

The air strikes came as Russia presented a draft resolution to the UN Security Council that would call for consent from Damascus for attacks against ISIL in Syria.

Washington had previously blocked a similar resolution, and no date has been set for a vote on this one.

The Syrian conflict, which began as protests against Assad’s regime in 2011, has escalated into a multi-faceted war that has drawn thousands of fighters from overseas.

Over the past four years, more than 250,000 people have been killed and half of the population displaced.

Russia launches first airstrikes in Syria

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US officials said the airstrikes appeared to have taken place in the Homs province, where Russia is likely support the Syrian Arab Army in its fight against rebels. (AFP/File)

US officials said the airstrikes appeared to have taken place in the Homs province, where Russia is likely support the Syrian Arab Army in its fight against rebels. (AFP/File)

by Al Bawaba

Russia has conducted its first airstrikes in Syria, US officials said, shortly after the country spoke to the UN to urge an international coalition against Daesh (ISIS).

US officials, however, told Reuters the airstrikes appeared to have taken place in the western province of Homs, where Daesh has no presence and the Syrian Arab Army is trying to regain territory from opposition fighters.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights earlier reported Wednesday at least 27 people were killedand dozens wounded from Syrian army airstrikes. Six of the dead were children, the monitor said.

Russia on Wednesday gained approval from its parliament to conduct airstrikes in the war-torn country.

“The Federation Council unanimously supported the President’s request — 162 votes in favor of granting permission,” Kremlin Chief of Staff Sergey Ivanov said, according to Russian news agency Tass.

Russian President Vladimir Putin at the UN General Assembly said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was the force to support to defeat Daesh. But analysts have expressed concern over Russian troops’ deployment in regime-held areas, indicating Russian military force would likely be used against rebels.

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