Syria, Russian air raids on Idlib: 16 civilians killed

Posted on: 05/03/2020 08:54

Sixteen civilians Russian fighter jets were killed in Idlib province, northwestern Syria. The Anadolu news agency announced this, explaining that a farm was hit.

Also two military airports in central Syria, that of Shuayrat and that of al-Dabaa in the province of Homs, were hit by missiles launched by Israel overnight. The activists of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights report it, explaining that at the moment there are no reports of victims.

Sana news agency, citing a military source, claimed that the anti-aircraft defense system had repelled the Israeli missile attack before it hit its targets.

Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar announced on Twitter that soldiers sent from Ankara to Idlib province, northwestern Syria, in the past 24 hours have “neutralized 184 regime soldiers” from Bashar al-Assad. By the term “neutralized”, the Turkish authorities refer to soldiers who have been killed, surrendered or captured.

In the same period of time, the Turkish Armed Forces destroyed “four tanks, five cannons, three anti-aircraft defense systems, eight military vehicles and two armored vehicles”.

Meanwhile, today the Russian president Vladimir Putin will receive Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan to try to find a solution to the ongoing crisis in Idlib. The objective of the meeting was to obtain respect for the ceasefire in the province where, in December, the Bashar al-Assad army launched a new offensive to regain control of the areas in the hands of the rebels.