BEIRUT: Air strikes by government ally Russia hit near a bakery and a medical clinic in Syria’s rebel-held Idlib region early on Thursday, killing 10 civilians, a war monitor said.
At least five women were among the dead in the town of Ariha in Idlib province, where Russian-backed government forces are conducting an offensive against the country’s last major rebel bastion, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
A dust-covered doctor ran out of the Al-Shami clinic screaming following the attack, which partially damaged the facility’s walls, an AFP correspondent reported.
Nearby, three entire buildings had collapsed.
The wailing of women and children rang out as rescue workers searched for corpses beneath the rubble, the correspondent added.
The latest deaths brings the total number of civilians killed by Russian air strikes in Idlib over the past 24 hours to 21, the Observatory said.
Earlier this month, Russia denied launching any combat operations in the Idlib region since a cease-fire it agreed with rebel supporter Turkey went into effect on January 12.
But the truce has since become a dead letter and the number of reported Russian raids has risen sharply.
Thousands of Russian troops are deployed across Syria in support of the army, while a contingent of Russian private security personnel also operates on the ground.
Moscow’s military intervention in 2015, four years into the Syrian conflict, helped keep President Bashar Assad in power and started a long, bloody reconquest of territory lost to rebels in the early stages of the war.
The fierce bombardment coincides with a ground push by government forces in the south of Idlib province, where they captured the strategic highway town of Maaret Al-Numan on Wednesday.
They are now pushing on toward the town of Saraqib, whose residents have mostly fled in recent days in the face of heavy bombardment.
Both towns lie on the key M5 highway connecting the capital Damascus to second city Aleppo.
The road has been in the sights of the government for some time as it seeks to revive a moribund economy ravaged by almost nine years of war.
Russian strikes kill 10 civilians in Syria’s Idlib: monitor
https://arab.news/grqua
Russian strikes kill 10 civilians in Syria’s Idlib: monitor
- Russia denies launching any combat operations in the Idlib region since a cease-fire went into effect on January 12
- The latest deaths bring the total number of civilians killed by Russian air strikes in Idlib over the past 24 hours to 21
One killed in attack on oil tankers off Iraq, rescue operation ongoing: authorities
- Iraq’s oil ministry said in a statement on Thursday it had “deep concern” about incidents involving oil tankers in the Gulf, without providing details
BAGHDAD: An attack on two oil tankers near Iraq killed at least one crew member, authorities said on Thursday, as Iran carries out a campaign to disrupt global energy markets.
Farhan Al-Fartousi, from Iraq’s General Company for Ports, told state television that one crew member had been killed and 38 rescued while the “search continues for the missing.”
He did not specify the crew members’ nationalities or provide details on who was behind the attack, which occurred roughly 50 kilometers (31 miles) from the coast.
The Iraqi government’s media cell told national news agency INA that “two tankers were subject to sabotage.”
Iraq’s oil ministry said in a statement on Thursday it had “deep concern” about incidents involving oil tankers in the Gulf, without providing details.
“The safety of navigation in international maritime corridors and energy supply routes must remain free from regional conflicts,” the ministry added.
The Strait of Hormuz — the waterway carrying a fifth of the world’s oil — remains closed to almost all oil tankers, and Iran has vowed that not one liter of oil would be exported from the Gulf while its war with the United States and Israel continues.
US President Donald Trump said Wednesday that US forces have struck 28 Iranian mine-laying vessels more than a week into the Middle East war.
Images of a ship at sea with plumes of smoke rising from a huge fire, were broadcast by state television channel Al-Ikhbariya. AFP could not verify the images.
An employee at Iraq’s Basra oil terminal told AFP that it was unclear “whether it was a drone attack or explosive-laden boats.”
The Iraqi State Organization for Marketing of Oil (SOMO) confirmed in a statement that two oil tankers were attacked, without providing details on how.
Maltese-flagged oil tanker ZEFYROS was attacked as it was preparing to enter the port of Khor Al-Zoubair, where it would have taken on board an additional 30,000 tons of liquid naphtha — primarily used in petrochemicals, SOMO said.
The second targeted vessel, SAFESEA VISHNU, was sailing under the Marshall Islands flag and was chartered by an Iraqi company, according to SOMO.
The incidents come just hours after the US embassy in Baghdad warned that Iran and Tehran-backed Iraqi armed groups might target US-owned oil facilities in Iraq.
