Syria’s cease-fire frays as Russia resumes airstrikes
- 8 years ago
Syria's hard-won truce began to fray Sunday, with Russian warplanes resuming airstrikes on towns and villages in the north and fresh reports of artillery fire across several front lines.
Russia's Defense Ministry offered no comment on the strikes, but it had warned Saturday that it reserved the right under the terms of the truce to continue hitting the Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra, terrorist groups that are battling the Assad regime.
The first half-dozen attacks, carried out shortly after 6 a.m. Sunday, awoke residents in four towns west of Aleppo that lie on the last rebel supply route into the city, according to the White Helmets civil defense group.
A cease-fire coordination center set up at the Russian air base of Khmeimim, in northwestern Syria's Latakia province, accused the rebels of committing nine truce violations in the first 24 hours, singling out an attack by the Islamic State on the Kurdish-held town of Tal Abyad in the northeast as the most serious.
Russia's Defense Ministry offered no comment on the strikes, but it had warned Saturday that it reserved the right under the terms of the truce to continue hitting the Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra, terrorist groups that are battling the Assad regime.
The first half-dozen attacks, carried out shortly after 6 a.m. Sunday, awoke residents in four towns west of Aleppo that lie on the last rebel supply route into the city, according to the White Helmets civil defense group.
A cease-fire coordination center set up at the Russian air base of Khmeimim, in northwestern Syria's Latakia province, accused the rebels of committing nine truce violations in the first 24 hours, singling out an attack by the Islamic State on the Kurdish-held town of Tal Abyad in the northeast as the most serious.