A Russian Su-24 aircaft on a runway at the Hmeimim airbase in Syria. © Maksim Blinov / Sputnik
At least 25 militants of the al-Qaeda-affiliated Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP), including senior commanders of the Uyghur-led terrorist group, were killed in a series of Russian airstrikes that targeted the northwestern Syrian region of Greater Idlib on August 24, Sputnik reported, citing a Syrian field source.
The unnamed source told the Russian news agency that the airstrikes hit several headquarters of the TIP near the town of Jisr al-Shughur in the western Idlib countryside and in the northwestern countryside of Hama.
The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a pro-opposition monitoring group, confirmed that a series of Russian airstrikes hit the village of Shindrish which is located near Jisr al-Shugur.
Shinrish is mainly inhabited by Uyghur from the TIP and Uzbek militants, according to the monitoring group, who said that the road to the village was blocked after the Russian airstrikes.
-
- Click to see full-size image. Via Twitter.
-
- Click to see full-size image. Via Twitter.
-
- Click to see full-size image. Via Twitter.
The TIP is one of the main allies of al-Qaeda-affiliated Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, the de-facto ruler of Greater Idlib. After the withdrawal of government forces from the region in 2015, the group’s militants displaced Syrian civilians from several towns and villages in the western Idlib countryside and the northeastern countryside of Hama then settled their families there. One of the said settlements was Shinrish.
The Russian airstrikes came just a day after the Syrian and Russian defense minister announced the death of dozens of militants from HTS in a series of joint strikes that targeted Greater Idlib.
HTS and its allies, including the TIP, stepped up attacks on nearby government areas in recent months, challenging a ceasefire that was brokered by Russia and Turkey more than three years ago. The recent Syrian and Russian strikes were carried out in response to these violations.
MORE ON THIS TOPIC:
turkmenistan, uzbekistan, kazakhstan are all pro-russia, there is no room for turgay in syria, just funding and supporting terrorists until that brutal dictator er”dog”an is overthrown from power.
gone you can do it get rid of him