ISTANBUL: An air strike Saturday by key Damascus ally Russia killed six civilians including a child in the embattled opposition bastion of Idlib in northwestern Syria, a war monitor.
The strike hit the village of Jaballa in the south of the Idlib region, taking the lives of all six from the same family, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The Britain-based monitor, which relies on sources inside Syria, says it determines who carries out an air strike according to flight patterns, as well as aircraft and ammunition involved.
Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said it was the bloodiest such Russian air raid in two months since Moscow announced a truce for the surrounding area on August 31.
Since then, eight other civilians have been killed in Russian air strikes on different dates in the region, he said.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces launched a devastating military campaign against Idlib in April, killing around 1,000 civilians and forcing more than 400,000 people to flee their homes.
TEMPORARY DEAL
Last week’s Sochi agreement between Ankara and Moscow halted a Turkish operation launched against Kurdish forces in northeastern Syria on October 9, which left hundreds dead and prompted tens of thousands to flee their homes.
Under the deal, Turkey is to assume control over one 120 kilometres (75 miles) wide section in the centre of the border, while Syrian government forces are to deploy to the east and west.
Along the whole length of the border, a 10-kilometre deep buffer zone is to be created on the Syrian side which will be jointly patrolled by Russian and Turkish troops.
The Kurds spearheaded a US-backed military campaign against the Islamic State group that deprived the jihadists’ of their final sliver of Syrian territory in March this year but Ankara views the Kurdish forces as “terrorists”.
Abandoned by their ally Washington — which early last month pulled its own troops back from the border area, effectively allowing Turkey to attack — the Kurds turned to Damascus which swiftly deployed its forces, reclaiming swathes of territory it lost as long ago as 2012.
President Bashar al-Assad said Thursday the Sochi agreement was “temporary,” and will eventually pave the way for his government to retake Syria’s northeast.
UN Syria envoy Geir Pedersen on Friday voiced hope over talks in Geneva between the Syrian government, opposition and civil society.
Pedersen said he was “very impressed” that the sides were meeting at all to discuss amending the country’s constitution ahead of possible elections as part of a UN peace plan.
Nearly 100 kilometres (around 60 miles) from the site of the joint patrols in Derbasiyeh, a convoy of five US armoured vehicles was seen patrolling on Thursday in a zone north of the town of Qahtaniyah.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it was part of an eastern stretch of the border where US forces are seeking to maintain a presence.
“They want to prevent Russia and the regime from reaching parts of the border that lie east of the city of Qamishli,” the de facto capital of Syria’s Kurdish minority, Observatory head Rami Abdul Rahman said.
A spokesman for the US-led coalition said its forces are transiting on routes near the border as Washington “withdraws troops from northern Syria and repositions some troops to the Deir Ezzor region,” near the border with Iraq.
Washington has begun reinforcing positions in Deir Ezzor province with extra military assets in coordination with the SDF to prevent the Islamic State group and others from gaining access to oil fields in the area, a US defence official has said.
Trump last month said a “small number” of US troops would stay to “secure the oil”.
