PHOTO: Man cradles a child injured by regime airstrikes on Aleppo on Sunday


LATEST


Jump to Original Entry


UPDATED 1100 GMT: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said that the Syrian opposition must leave areas where “terrorists” are present if they want to be involved in the political process:

We agreed long ago that groups that found themselves on the positions of terrorists but that are not terrorists and want to participate in the political process, should leave the territories of terrorist positions….They should disassociate and physically leave these positions.

Lavrov continued by criticizing the Americans for not helping to separate the opposition from the “terrorists”:

We agreed with the Americans that they would use their influence on these ‘good opposition members’ and will take them out of there so that no one prevents to destroy the terrorist group Jabhat al-Nusra. The firm promise of the US that it gave to us to carry out this demarcation has not been fulfilled for two months already.

The Minister did not identify the specific areas that the opposition should evacuate. Jabhat al-Nusra, which is not covered by the February 27 cessation of hostilities, has a minority presence in parts of northern Syria. It also fights alongside rebel factions on fronts against the Syrian military and its foreign allies.

Instead, Lavrov pointed to an expansion of the list of “terrorists” from whom the opposition should break away, “We will summarize facts and present them to UN Security Council to adjust terrorist lists.”

Lavrov repeated last week that the leading rebel factions Ahrar al-Sham and Jaish al-Islam should be considered as “terrorists” and excluded from the political process.


ORIGINAL ENTRY: The Assad regime continued its bombing of opposition-held areas of Syria’s largest city Aleppo for a fourth straight day on Sunday, killing at least 26 people.

More than 100 people have died in and near the city since Russian and regime warplanes stepped up their attacks on Thursday.

Yesterday’s strikes hit several districts, with the deadliest on the Sakhour neighborhood:

Strikes were also reported on northern Homs and Hama Provinces. The Local Coordination Committees reported documentation of 54 deaths across the country, including 10 children and five women.

Attacks had diminished since a February 27 cessation of hostilities, brokered by the US and Russia. However, the regime has lost territory south of Aleppo this month, with rebels and Jabhat al-Nusra defeating Iranian-led forces, and its efforts — accompanied by Iran, Hezbollah, and foreign militia — to cut off the main supply routes to the north have yet to succeed.

Just before the aerial escalation, Russia was reportedly moving in heavy artillery to support a renewed ground offensive.

Two men are pulled from the rubble in Sakhour:

An injured man is led away by rescuers:

INJURED MAN ALEPPO 24-04-16

Did US Give Green Light to Russian Bombing?

The US has yet to criticize the latest wave of bombing, although US Secretary of State John Kerry did express concern about the Russian buildup of weapons.

Instead, Colonel Steve Warren, the US military spokesman in Baghdad, appeared to hand Moscow and Assad a pretext for the attacks when said last Wednesday — falsely — that Jabhat al-Nusra is the dominant force in the city: “It’s primarily al-Nusra who holds Aleppo, and of course, al-Nusra is not part of the cessation of hostilities.”

Kerry said on Friday, “There’s a Russian impatience and a regime impatience with the terrorists who are behaving like terrorists and laying siege to places on their side and killing people.”

Syrian State media have not referred to the airstrikes. Instead, State news agency SANA claimed that 10 civilians were killed in regime-held parts of Aleppo by rebel shelling on Sunday, with “damage to more than 100 houses, 7 mosques, 3 schools, and 20 cars”.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry asked the UN to condemn “the recent terrorist attacks which targeted residential neighborhoods in Damascus, Damascus Countryside, and Aleppo provinces”.

SANA said on Monday that six more people, included three children, were killed and more than 40 injured by further shelling.


Opposition: Regime Forces Target Aid Convoy En Route to Northern Homs

Opposition media claim that regime forces fired upon a UN convoy carrying aid to a besieged pocket in northern Homs Province.

A correspondent for Eldorar said shelling from a regime-held village injured a driver and three civilians.

Last week, a convoy of 65 trucks delivered the first assistance to the town of Rastan since 2012.


Pro-Regime Media: Up to 10 Killed in Bomb South of Damascus

Up to 10 people have been killed by a car bomb on the outskirts of the Sayyeda Zeinab district south of Damascus, according to pro-regime media.

Hezbollah’s Al Manar TV said eight deaths occurred at a Syrian army checkpoint. Opposition outlets, citing sources, supported the account.

However, the head of the Assad regime’s delegation at the Geneva talks, UN Ambassador Bashar al-Ja’afari, declared that “four terrorists” struck a hospital, killing 10 people who had been evacuated last week from two regime enclaves north of Idlib city in northwest Syria.

DAMASCUS BOMB 25-04-16


Video: ISIS Leave Dumayr Area After Agreement with Regime

Claimed footage of an Islamic State convoy leaving the Dumayr area, northeast of Damascus, after an agreement with the Assad regime:

The agreement was reached last week after weeks of fighting between ISIS and regime forces, including the Islamic State’s attacks on the Dumayr airport.

Rebel forces, including Jaish al-Islam, had also been battling the Islamic State in the desert area.

Pro-opposition activists are claiming that the Assad regime pursued the agreement, including a guarantee of protection for the withdrawing forces, so the Syrian military can concentrate its attacks on rebels — meanwhile, the Islamic State units can regroup in northern Syria and join ISIS’s war with rebel forces.


Obama to Send Up to 250 More Troops Into Syria

President Barack Obama will announce on Monday that he plans to send up to 250 additional US troops to Syria, American officials are saying.

The deployment will increase the official number of US forces in Syria to about 300. They will work with Kurdish-led forces to continue offensives against the Islamic State that have taken territory across northeast Syria.

Obama will make the announcement in a speech in Hanover, Germany, where he is meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other European leaders.

“He intends to put in more…forces to the tune of 250 in Syria,” one U.S. official said on Sunday. The official said he was unable to confirm the number of special forces and support personnel in the deployment.

Since last October, the US has put its emphasis on support of the Syrian Democratic Forces, the Kurdish-led army that has advanced to and beyond the Euphrates River in northern Syria. While pushing back ISIS, the advance has caused concern for Turkey, which had set the Euphrates as a “red line”.

Ankara claims that the Syrian Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its YPG militia, the leading element in the SDF, are linked with the Turkish Kurdish insurgency PKK, which has been labeled a “terrorist” group by Washington as well as Turkey.

Obama met German Chancellor Merkel on Sunday, just after her return from a tour of a refugee camp in Turkey near the Syrian border.

During the trip, Merkel supported Turkey’s proposal — long rejected by the US — of a “safe zone” in northern Syria along the border.

US officials gave no indication of Obama’s response in his Monday meetings.