Russian Air Assault Kills 21 ISIS Militants in Syria

Russian Su-30 jets are parked at an airbase in Syria, on Oct. 22, 2015, as a Mi 24 helicopter gunship flies overhead. AP
Russian Su-30 jets are parked at an airbase in Syria, on Oct. 22, 2015, as a Mi 24 helicopter gunship flies overhead. AP
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Russian Air Assault Kills 21 ISIS Militants in Syria

Russian Su-30 jets are parked at an airbase in Syria, on Oct. 22, 2015, as a Mi 24 helicopter gunship flies overhead. AP
Russian Su-30 jets are parked at an airbase in Syria, on Oct. 22, 2015, as a Mi 24 helicopter gunship flies overhead. AP

A wave of Russian airstrikes killed at least 21 ISIS extremists in the Syrian desert over the past 24 hours, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Saturday.

The 21 were killed in at least 130 airstrikes "carried out over the past 24 hours by the Russian air force targeting the ISIS group in an area on the edge of the provinces of Aleppo, Hama and Raqqa", the Observatory said.

The raids, which continued into Saturday, follow a series of ISIS attacks Friday on regime and allied forces that killed at least eight members of a pro-Damascus militia, the monitor said.

In recent months, the vast desert, know in Arabic as the Badia, has been the scene of increasingly frequent fighting between the extremists and regime forces backed by Russian air power.

The extremists continue to launch attacks, mostly in the Badia desert which stretches from the central province of Homs to the border with Iraq.



Iran’s Supreme Leader Says Syrian Youth Will Resist Incoming Government

A defaced portrait of ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is seen in Damascus, Syria, 18 December 2024 (issued 22 December 2024). (EPA)
A defaced portrait of ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is seen in Damascus, Syria, 18 December 2024 (issued 22 December 2024). (EPA)
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Iran’s Supreme Leader Says Syrian Youth Will Resist Incoming Government

A defaced portrait of ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is seen in Damascus, Syria, 18 December 2024 (issued 22 December 2024). (EPA)
A defaced portrait of ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is seen in Damascus, Syria, 18 December 2024 (issued 22 December 2024). (EPA)

Iran's supreme leader on Sunday said that young Syrians will resist the new government emerging after the overthrow of President Bashar sl-Assad as he again accused the United States and Israel of sowing chaos in the country.

Iran had provided crucial support to Assad throughout Syria's nearly 14-year civil war, which erupted after he launched a violent crackdown on a popular uprising against his family's decades-long rule. Syria had long served as a key conduit for Iranian aid to Lebanon's armed group Hezbollah.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said in an address on Sunday that the “young Syrian has nothing to lose" and suffers from insecurity following Assad's fall.

“What can he do? He should stand with strong will against those who designed and those who implemented the insecurity," Khamenei said. “God willing, he will overcome them.”

He accused the United States and Israel of plotting against Assad's government in order to seize resources, saying: “Now they feel victory, the Americans, the Zionist regime and those who accompanied them.”

Iran and its armed proxies in the region have suffered a series of major setbacks over the past year, with Israel battering Hamas in Gaza and landing heavy blows on Hezbollah before they agreed to a ceasefire in Lebanon last month.

Khamenei denied that such groups were proxies of Iran, saying they fought because of their own beliefs and that Tehran did not depend on them. “If one day we plan to take action, we do not need proxy force,” he said.