PHOTO: Russian Defense Ministry’s Igor Konashenkov — Warplanes have not flown over Aleppo since October 18


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Shifting its approach again, Russia has said that its bombing “pause” of Syria’s largest city Aleppo will continue.

After a suspension declared on October 18, Russian-regime attacks on opposition areas resumed on Sunday. However, yesterday the Defense Ministry said the pause would continue, with aircraft staying out of a 10-km (six-mile) zone.

Ministry official Sergei Rudskoi did not give a reason for the changing course of action. Instead, spokesman Igor Konashenkov maintained that Moscow had never restarted attacking, insisting that Russian and Syrian warplanes had not even approached Aleppo for eight days.

The Defense Ministry’s position also contradicted that taken by the Foreign Ministry. Sergei Ryabkov, the Deputy Foreign Minister, told reporters, “Nothing of what has been required in the past three days took place, so now the issue of renewing the humanitarian pause is irrelevant.”

The Local Coordination Committees indicated that the airstrikes had stopped on Tuesday. It documented only 12 deaths in #Aleppo Province, most of them from rebel clashes with the Islamic State.

Soon after Russian-regime airstrikes were renewed on September 19, killing hundreds of civilians, US Secretary of State John Kerry called for a suspension of military overflights of Aleppo. Damascus and Moscow immediately rejected the measure as an infringement of Syrian sovereignty.

Kerry called Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to express concern over the bombing, but there was no indication whether the conversation had led to Tuesday’s shift from Moscow.

On Tuesday, State Department spokesman John Kirby said, “We obviously welcome any reduction in the violence, but it has to be met with a commitment and an actual delivery of humanitarian assistance, which was the purpose in the first place.”

He said Washington would prefer putting a longer-term cease-fire to ensure delivery of aid, rather than sporadic pauses: “I don’t want to couch this as nothing but failure. There has been some progress made, but there’s obviously still more work to be done.”

Russia and the regime are maintaining a siege imposed in late August. Residents in east Aleppo report shortages of food and basic supplies with spiraling prices, and there have been claims of two deaths of infants from starvation in recent days.


Reports: Russian Attack Kills 25+ in Hass in Idlib Province

Pro-opposition activists report that more than 25 people have been killed this morning in a Russian attack on a village in Idlib Province in northwest Syria.

The victims, including women and children, were in the village of Hass, Targets included a school.

Graphic photos show slain students and a dismembered arm clutching a schoolbag.

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Footage of one of the bombs:

And one of the victims:


Amnesty Reports Almost 300 Civilian Deaths From 11 US-Led Airstrikes

An Amnesty International report sets out almost 300 civilian deaths from its examination of 11 US-led airstrikes over the past two years.

The organization called for the coalition to conduct “thorough investigations” It said US authorities have not responded to a September 28 memorandum with questions about the conduct of coalition forces.

US Central Command has only acknowledged one civilian death in the incidents considered by Amnesty.

The cases include three coalition attacks in June and July 2016 near Manbij, the center of ISIS in Aleppo Province which was being attacked by the US-supported and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces. More than 100 civilians in the villages of al-Tukhar, al-Hadhadh, and al-Ghandoura are believed to have died.

Another mass killing was in Hasakah Province in eastern Syria in December 2015, when the coalition hit two houses where civilians were sheltering. Local organizations said 40 civilians, including 19 children, were slain and more than 30 people wounded.

Amnesty’s Beirut-based Deputy Director for Research, Lynn Maalouf, said:

We fear the US-led Coalition is significantly underestimating the harm caused to civilians in its operations in Syria.

Analysis of available evidence suggests that in each of these cases, Coalition forces failed to take adequate precautions to minimize harm to civilians and damage to civilian objects. Some of these attacks may constitute disproportionate or otherwise indiscriminate attacks.

It’s high time the US authorities came clean about the full extent of the civilian damage caused by Coalition attacks in Syria. Independent and impartial investigations must be carried out into any potential violations of international humanitarian law, and the findings should be made public.


Regime Snipers Kill Another Resident in Besieged Madaya

Syria Direct reports on the regime’s killing of another resident in Madaya, the town northwest of Damascus which has been besieged since July 2015.

Mohammad al-Mowwil was walking home on Saturday when he was hit in the abdomen by a sniper’s bullet. He died in a clinic on Monday.

Mohammad Darwish, one of the last three medical staff in Madaya, said:

There was nothing we could do. We didn’t have the right medical supplies or equipment, and we lack any kind of specialist who knows how to perform surgery for serious injuries.

Scores of civilians died from starvation last winter as food and supplies were cut off. Under international pressure, the Assad regime finally allowed limited aid into the town of 40,000, but it is still surrounded by thousands of landmines and at least 65 regime checkpoints manned by snipers.

At least 20 Madaya residents have been killed by snipers and landmines throughout the siege, according to a July 2016 report by Physicians for Human Rights.

The remaining medics are two dentists and a veterinarian. When a patient requires knowledge beyond their limited expertise, they use the Internet to contact specialists in opposition-held Syria or beyond.


Report: Regime Helicopters Attack Turkish-Backed Rebels

The Turkish military is claiming the first attack by regime helicopters on Turkish-backed rebels in northern Syria.

The reports say barrel-bombing killed two Free Syrian Army fighters and wounded five on Wednesday morning.

The attack was on a village near Akhtarin, 5 km (3 miles) southeast of Dabiq.

The rebels seized Dabiq, a symbolic center of the Islamic State, earlier this month.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said the attacks would not stop Turkey’s fight against “terrorists”.

Çavuşoğlu criticized the Assad regime for targeting forces fighting the Islamic State: “We clearly see what is on the agenda of the regime and its supporters.”

The Assad regime’s military said last week that it will bring down any Turkish warplanes entering Syrian airspace, following the first Turkish strikes on positions of the Kurdish militia YPG.

On Tuesday, claims circulated that Russian jets struck positions of the Turkish-backed rebels for the first time, as the YPG attacked on the ground.