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HomeNEWSWORLD NEWSSyria: Assad launches ground offensive under ’intense’ Russian airstrikes for first time

Syria: Assad launches ground offensive under ’intense’ Russian airstrikes for first time

Overnight Russia air strikes in western Syria provinces of Hama and Idlib accompanied by regime forces and ground shelling


 


An Assad regime ground assault on at least four rebel positions came after a wave of “intense” Russian air strikes in western Syria on Wednesday. This was a first, The Telegraph daily cited a group monitoring the war said.
The ground attacks were being carried out by “regime forces”, the British-base Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, a term it also uses to describe local and foreign militia allied to Damascus.
“For the first time the strikes were accompanied by fighting on the ground between regime forces and rebels,” said British-based Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman.
The intense wave of Russian air strikes hit the Syrian province of Hama and nearby areas in the neighbouring province of Idlib on Wednesday, the group said.
Clashes took place on the ground in Hama province and began when regime forces including pro-government militias launched an attack on rebels as Russian planes carried out air strikes.
“There was also heavy use of surface-to-surface shelling by the regime in the province,” Mr Abdel Rahman added.
The group had no immediate tolls from the strikes overnight and in the early hours of Wednesday which were “more intense than usual”.
Russia, a top ally of Bashar al-Assad, started carrying out air strikes in Syria last week.
Fighters on the ground and Western countries have said the Russian campaign is mainly focusing on other rebel groups and is aimed at shoring up Assad rather than combating Islamic State.
Russia’s Wednesday strikes targeted the towns of Kafr Zita, Kafr Nabudah, al-Sayyad and the village of al-Lataminah in Hama province and the towns of Khan Shaykhun and Alhbit in Idlib, the Observatory said.
Meanwhile on Wednesday, Russia said it could implement US proposals aiming to coordinate Moscow’s strikes in Syria with the Washington-led coalition.
“The Russian defence ministry has answered the demands of the Pentagon and is examining in depth American proposals on coordinating operations carried out … against the terrorist group Islamic State on Syrian territory,” Russian defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said.
“On the whole, these proposals could be put in place,” he said, adding: “We will for our part only try to clarify certain technical details which will be discussed today between Russian military defence experts and those from the Pentagon.”
US and Russian officials held discussions last week – at Russia’s request – on establishing measures to avoid accidents so warplanes flying over Syria would not be in the same place at the same time.
The so-called “deconfliction” talks came after Russia started bombing in support of Mr Assad, further complicating the four-and-a-half-year conflict.
Russian jets carried out air strikes on 12 sites in Syria on Tuesday, as Moscow expanded its week-old bombing campaign in the war-torn country amid mounting tensions with Ankara over the violation of Turkey’s airspace by Russian military planes.

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