FILE PHOTO: Sukhoi Su-24 attack aircraft before departing for its permanent base in Russia from Khmeimim Air Base in Syria. © Vadim Grishankin / Sputnik
On October 16, another wave of Russian strikes targeted the northwestern Syrian region of Greater Idlib, which is occupied by al-Qaeda-affiliated Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and its allies.
In a briefing, the Russian Center for Reconciliation in Syria said that the strikes were carried out to prevent attempts by terrorist groups in Greater Idlib to target government-held areas near Idlib with drones and rockets.
“In order to prevent such attempts, the Russian Aerospace Forces carried out strikes on nine militant bases. A terrorist training facility and an ammunition depot were also destroyed,” Captain 1st Rank Oleg Ignasyuk, deputy chief of the center, said in the briefing.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based pro-opposition monitoring group, said that 28 Russian strikes hit Greater Idlib during the day. Most of the strikes targeted the outskirts of Idlib city and the hills surrounding the town of Kabani in the northern countryside of Lattakia.
This was the third wave of Russian strikes to target Greater Idlib in less than a week. The first wave of strikes was on October 14.
The Russian strikes come amid reports of a plan by HTS and its allies in Greater Idlib to launch a large-scale attack against the Syrian military in order to take advantage of the distraction caused by the ongoing Israeli war on both the Gaza Strip and Lebanon.
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are they hitting anything or anyone..?
dumb russians – should be the jews for bombing lattakia. thus putin -wipe them off the map!
je na čase oslobodiť celý región veľký idlib. svetu mier!!!