Russian Jets Strike Syrian Opposition-Held Bastion in Heaviest Strikes since Ceasefire

Smoke billows following a reported Russian airstrike on the western outskirts of the mostly opposition-held Syrian province of Idlib, on September 20, 2020. (Photo by Mohammed AL-RIFAI / AFP)
Smoke billows following a reported Russian airstrike on the western outskirts of the mostly opposition-held Syrian province of Idlib, on September 20, 2020. (Photo by Mohammed AL-RIFAI / AFP)
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Russian Jets Strike Syrian Opposition-Held Bastion in Heaviest Strikes since Ceasefire

Smoke billows following a reported Russian airstrike on the western outskirts of the mostly opposition-held Syrian province of Idlib, on September 20, 2020. (Photo by Mohammed AL-RIFAI / AFP)
Smoke billows following a reported Russian airstrike on the western outskirts of the mostly opposition-held Syrian province of Idlib, on September 20, 2020. (Photo by Mohammed AL-RIFAI / AFP)

Syrian opposition sources said Russian jets bombed northwestern Syria on Sunday in the most extensive strikes since a Turkish-Russian deal halted major fighting with a ceasefire nearly six months ago.

Witnesses said the warplanes struck the western outskirts of Idlib city and that there was heavy artillery shelling in the mountainous Jabal al Zawya region in southern Idlib from nearby Syrian army outposts. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

"These 30 raids are by far the heaviest strikes so far since the ceasefire deal," said Mohammed Rasheed, a former opposition official and a volunteer plane spotter whose network covers the
Russian air base in the western coastal province of Latakia.

Other tracking centers said Russian Sukhoi jets hit the Horsh area and Arab Said town, west of the city of Idlib.

Unidentified drones also hit two opposition-held towns in the Sahel al-Ghab plain, west of Hama province.

There has been no wide-scale aerial bombing since a March agreement ended a Russian-backed bombing campaign that displaced over a million people in the region which borders Turkey after months of fighting.



Lebanon's Caretaker Prime Minister Visits Military Positions in the Country's South

Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati (C) arrives with cabinet ministers for a meeting at Benoit Barakat barracks in Tyre, southern Lebanon, 07 December 2024. (EPA)
Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati (C) arrives with cabinet ministers for a meeting at Benoit Barakat barracks in Tyre, southern Lebanon, 07 December 2024. (EPA)
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Lebanon's Caretaker Prime Minister Visits Military Positions in the Country's South

Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati (C) arrives with cabinet ministers for a meeting at Benoit Barakat barracks in Tyre, southern Lebanon, 07 December 2024. (EPA)
Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati (C) arrives with cabinet ministers for a meeting at Benoit Barakat barracks in Tyre, southern Lebanon, 07 December 2024. (EPA)

Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister has begun a tour of military positions in the country’s south, almost a month after a ceasefire deal that ended the war between Israel and the Hezbollah group that battered the country.
Najib Mikati on Monday was on his first visit to the southern frontlines, where Lebanese soldiers under the US-brokered deal are expected to gradually deploy, with Hezbollah militants and Israeli troops both expected to withdraw by the end of next month, The Associated Press said.
Mikati’s tour comes after the Lebanese government expressed its frustration over ongoing Israeli strikes and overflights in the country.
“We have many tasks ahead of us, the most important being the enemy's (Israel's) withdrawal from all the lands it encroached on during its recent aggression,” he said after meeting with army chief Joseph Aoun in a Lebanese military barracks in the southeastern town of Marjayoun. “Then the army can carry out its tasks in full.”
The Lebanese military for years has relied on financial aid to stay functional, primarily from the United States and other Western countries. Lebanon’s cash-strapped government is hoping that the war’s end and ceasefire deal will bring about more funding to increase the military’s capacity to deploy in the south, where Hezbollah’s armed units were notably present.
Though they were not active combatants, the Lebanese military said that dozens of its soldiers were killed in Israeli strikes on their premises or patrolling convoys in the south. The Israeli army acknowledged some of these attacks.